1 


MAKING  A  NEWSPA 


GIVEN 


I 


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MAKING 
A   NEWSPAPER 


BY 

JOHN    L.    GIVEN 

LATE  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  "EVENING  SUN" 


NEW    YORK 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 
1912 


Copyright,  1907, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published  April,  iqoy 


THE   QUINN    &   BODEN    CO.    PRESS 
RAHWAY,    N.    J. 


TO 
MY   WIFE 


285908 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.  The  American  Newspaper 

II.  Newspaper  Office  Organization 

III.  The  Editor-in-Chief 

IV.  The  Managing  Editor 
V.  Uncovering  the  News 

VI.  The  Police  as  Newsgatherers 

VII.  Police  Courts  as  News  Centers 

.  VIII.  Starting  the  Day's  Work 

IX.  What  the  City  Editor  Does 

X.  Qualifications  for  Journalism 

XI.  How  the  Reporters  Work     . 

XII.  Writing  a  Newspaper  Story 

XIII.  News  from  Outside  the  City 

KIV.  Preparing  for  Journalism 

XV.  Getting  a  Situation 

JCVI.  The  Prizes  in  Journalism 

XVII.  With  the  Printers 

XVIII.  The  Money-Making  Department 


PAGE 

I 

22 

30 
36 

54 

69 

89 

97 

117 

147 

153 

189 

219 

240 

255 
266 
282 
305 


111 


MAKING  A  NEWSPAPER 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPER 

The  average  American,  while  he  does  not  perhaps 
often  reaHze  it,  regards  the  newspapers  of  his  country 
much  as  he  regards  the  Liberty  Bell  and  Bunker  Hill. 
In  the  Liberty  Bell  and  Bunker  Hill  he  sees  symbols 
of  independence  and  democratic  government.  In  the 
newspapers  he  sees  concrete  examples  of  that  price- 
less possession,  free  speech.  Holding  the  newspapers 
thus  apart  from  the  ordinary,  he  is  willing  to  overlook 
the  fact  that  they  are  in  reality  pure  business  ventures 
conducted  for  the  purpose  of  making  money,  and  con- 
sider them  as  representing  not  men  but  principles. 
The  American  is  proud  of  his  newspapers,  and  while 
there  is  here  and  there  an  example  which  he  may  not 
defend,  he  is  ever  ready  to  praise  them  and,  if  need  be, 
fight  for  them  as  a  whole.  There  is  nothing  which 
will  make  the  eagle  shriek  louder  than  the  shadow  of 
a  muzzle  for  the  press. 

Newspapers  are  read  everywhere  in  America,  for 
the  editor,  like  the  missionary  and  the  school-teacher,  is 
ever  on  the  lookout  for  new  territory;  but  the  most 
persistent  readers  are  found  in  the  larger  cities.  Here 
a  newspaper  is  a  daily  necessity.  Even  the  newly  ar- 
rived, long  down-trodden  immigrant  cannot  wait  until 


2  Making  a  Newspaper 

he  learns  to  read  English,  but  must  have  a  daily  jour- 
nal printed  in  his  native  tongue.  Apparently  the  thirst 
for  information  is  in  the  air.  In  the  crowds  that  ride 
to  the  offices,  stores,  and  factories  in  the  morning  there 
is  scarce  a  man  or  a  woman  who  does  not  carry  a 
paper,  and  in  the  home-going  crowds  those  who  are 
not  reading,  or  carrying  papers  as  evidence  that  they 
intend  to  read,  are  so  few  that  unless  sought  for  they 
are  overlooked.  Were  one  to  make  inquiry,  too,  he 
would  learn  that  many  of  these  insistent  readers  con- 
tinue their  search  for  news  all  day  long.  New  editions 
aggregating  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  are  issued 
in  the  largest  cities  at  intervals  of  an  hour  or  so  from 
early  morning  until  late  at  night,  and  the  newsboys 
never  cease  making  sales.  On  Sunday  the  newspaper 
reading  goes  on  v/ith  unusual  energy.  Knowing  that 
their  patrons  will  have  plenty  of  time  on  their  hands, 
the  publishers  enlarge  their  papers  for  this  day  to  four 
or  five  times  their  ordinary  size,  and  having  done  this, 
print  about  twice  the  usual  number  of  copies.  There 
are  plenty  of  persons  in  America  who  do  little  else  on 
Sundays  than  pore  over  newspapers. 

Like  most  things  American,  the  American  news- 
paper is  continually  changing.  Fifteen  years  ago  it 
was  not  exactly  what  it  was  ten  years  before,  and  at 
the  present  time  there  are  newspapers  conducted  along 
lines  that  were  undreamt  of  fifteen  years  ago.  If  an 
old-time  editor  had  attempted  to  enlarge  the  circulation 
of  his  paper  by  using  bill-poster  type  for  headings, 
printing  colored  pictures,  and  giving  away  tin  whistles, 
chewing  gum,  false  faces,  and  kites,  he  would  have 
been  looked  upon  as  crazy,  and  the  probabilities  are 
that  he  would  have  been  restrained  by  his  relatives  and 
friends.     To-day  there  are  editors  who  are  doing  these 


The  American  Newspaper  3 

very  things,  and  in  twelve  months  some  of  them  are 
disposing  of  as  many  papers  as  some  of  the  famous 
old  editors  one  hears  about  sold  in  half  as  many  years. 
As  a  result  of  some  of  the  new  methods  introduced 
into  newspaper  work,  the  term  newspaper  has  of  late 
years  taken  on  a  new  meaning.  The  old-style  news- 
paper was  a  publication  which  was  intended  to  appeal 
to  grown  men  only,  and  men  of  staid  habits,  at  that. 
It  printed  the  news,  but  it  made  no  pretense  of  pro- 
viding light  or  easy  reading.  It  ignored  one-half  the 
adult  population  entirely — the  women — in  bidding  for 
readers,  and  took  no  account  whatever  of  the  children ; 
apparently  the  editors  proceeded  on  the  theory  that  the 
women  could  let  the  papers  alone  if  they  did  not  like 
them,  and  that  the  children  were  beneath  notice.  The 
new-style  paper  is  conducted  on  a  different  plan.  In- 
stead of  taking  a  high  and  mighty  attitude  it  strives 
to  please  by  offering  something  to  everybody.  The 
solid  news  is  given  as  in  the  old-style  papers,  but  the 
stories  are  written  so  that  they  are  entertaining;  there 
is  a  continued  story ;  a  whole  page  of  sporting  news  is 
presented ;  the  chess-lover  gets  a  column ;  the  man  who 
likes  town  talk  is  considered;  the  fisherman  is  told 
where  the  fish  are  biting;  pictures  are  provided  for 
those  who  like  them;  in  short,  all  tastes  are  remem- 
bered. And  a  particular  effort  is  made  to  please  the 
women.  Every  bit.  of  current  news  in  which  it  is 
thought  they  will  be  interested  is  exploited  at  length, 
and  this  is  supplemented  by  the  talk  of  women's  clubs, 
fashion  notes,  recipes,  and  dress  patterns.  To  the  chil- 
dren an  appeal  little  less  insistent  is  made.  For  them 
there  are  funny  pictures,  jokes,  puzzles,  descriptions 
of  games,  and  frequently — this  with  the  Sunday  edi- 
tion— coupons  entitling  them  to  dolls,  boxes  of  paints, 


4  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  other  articles  that  might  be  expected  to  appeal  to 
juvenile  hearts.  The  new-style  newspaper,  when  it 
does  what  its  editors  strive  to  make  it  do,  delivers  a 
universal  appeal  and  once  gaining  access  to  a  home  be- 
comes a  household  necessity.  To  a  certain  extent  it 
becomes  the  daily  instructor  and  entertainer  for  the 
whole  family. 

Of  course,  most  newspapers,  coming  in  between  the 
two  extremes,  are  examples  of  neither  the  old  nor  the 
new  school,  and  the  great  range  of  possibilities  ac- 
counts in  part  for  the  difference  of  opinion  that  is 
shown  to  exist  when  the  question  ''What  is  a  news- 
paper ?"  is  asked.  There  are  definitions  almost  without 
number  forthcoming.  With  few  exceptions,  however, 
they  can  be  divided  into  three  classes.  Accord- 
ing to  one  definition,  and  this  is  given  by  persons  who 
always  read  the  editorial  columns  carefully,  a  news- 
paper is  a  molder  oi  public  opinion.  Those  who  are 
of  this  mind  speak  of  the  'Tower  of  the  Press,"  and 
the  "Fourth  Estate,"  and  among  them  are  most  of 
the  individuals  who  write  lengthy  letters  to  the  editors 
and  in  print  are  known  as  "Fairplay,"  "Justice,"  or 
"Pro  Bono  Publico."  When  one  of  these  persons  dis- 
closes himself  he  is  usually  found  to  be  well  past 
middle  age.  A  second  definition  comes  from  those 
persons  who  devote  themselves  almost  exclusively  to 
the  news  columns.  These,  and  they  form  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  newspaper  readers,  make  the  assertion 
that  a  newspaper  is  a  recorder  oi  current  events  This 
definition  is  as  safe  as  it  is  simple,  for  no  one  can  deny 
that  a  newspaper  is  a  recorder  of  events,  even  while 
insisting  that  it  is  other  things  as  well.  The  third 
definition  is  given  by  persons,  forming  a  comparatively 
small  class,  who  make  themselves  heard  frequently, 


The  American  Newspaper  5 

although  not  often  in  print.  These  assert  positively 
and  aggressively  that  a  good  many  newspapers  are 
scandal-mongering  busy-bodies,  and  the  most  vehement 
of  them  declare  that  were  they  so  minded  they  could 
produce  convincing  evidence  in  proof  of  their  asser- 
tions. Not  infrequently,  one  speaking  of  newspapers 
in  this  strain  leads  others  to  suspect  that  some  particu- 
lar occurrence  has  led  to  the  forming  of  the  opinion 
expressed.  Therefore,  to  avoid  the  possibility  of 
creating  a  wTong  impression,  a  person  should  not  rail 
against  newspapers  unless  he  is  in  a  place  where  he  is 
especially  well  known,  or  else  not  known  at  all. 

There  are  in  almost  every  large  city  journals  which 
answer  to  each  of  the  definitfens  given,  and  every  per- 
son would  do  well  to  remember  this,  and  not  become 
too  insistent  when  advancing  his  views.  Anyone 
familiar  with  New  York  newspapers  can  name  one  of 
them  which  is  acknowledged  to  be  a  molder  of  public 
opinion,  but  does  not  enjoy  a  reputation  for  the  com- 
pleteness of  its  news  except  among  its  regular  readers ; 
another  which  influences  very  few  with  its  editorials, 
but  is  prized  by  its  patrons  because  it  presents  its  news 
in  an  attractive  manner  and  rarely  misses  anything  of 
consequence;  and  still  a  third  which  cannot  raise  much 
objection  when  it  is  called  a  scandal-monger.  As  it  is 
in  New  York  so  it  is  elsewhere.  But  in  just  which 
class  a  particular  newspaper  is  placed  depends  to  a 
considerable  extent  upon  the  person  making  the  classi- 
fication. A  newspaper  which  one  person  considers  a 
model  is  to  another  a  dull,  uninteresting  publication, 
while  what  the  second  person  may  regard  as  embody- 
ing the  best  qualities  of  modern  journalism  may  by  the 
first  be  regarded  as  embodying  the  very  worst.  There 
is  no  unanimity  of  opinion  when  the  division  is  only 


6  Making  a  Newspaper 

a  question  of  good  or  bad.  Every  type  of  newspaper 
has  its  admirers,  and  were  a  dozen  men  to  be  selected 
in  any  large  city  to  classify  their  local  journals,  the 
chances  are  that  they  would  never  come  to  an  agree- 
ment, each  having  in  his  mind  different  standards  of 
excellence. 

Newspaper  workers,  the  men  who  make  the  news- 
papers, counting  the  cost,  the  aim,  and  the  labor  in- 
volved, say  that  without  making  fine  distinctions  there 
are  three  kinds  of  journalism  in  America.  There  is 
first  the  kind  which  merely  records — the  common,  or 
garden  variety.  This  brand  recites  what  occurs  in 
plain  sight,  but  on  dull  days,  when  fires  and  accidents 
are  few  and  the  local  politicians  are  quiet,  it  fills  its 
columns  with  material  which  can  be  procured  in  pro- 
fusion through  the  expenditure  of  no  greater  effort 
than  the  wielding  of  a  pair  of  shears.  Against  this 
kind  of  journalism  not  much  can  be  said.  But  there 
is  nothing  to  say  for  it. 

There  is  another  kind  of  journalism  which  records 
the  everyday  occurrences  about  which  everyone  wants 
to  know,  but,  not  content  with  this,  acts  as  a  dissemina- 
tor of  general  information  and  deals  with  causes  and 
effects  as  well  as  events.  It  does  what  most  individuals 
cannot  do  because  of  a  lack  of  time  or  opportunity — 
keeps  watch  on  the  men  who  serve  the  public,  guards 
the  public  purse,  and  restrains  those  who  would  in- 
fringe on  the  public  rights — tells  of  public  improve- 
ments that  are  under  way  and  suggests  others,  and 
heralds,  in  words  that  everyone  can  understand,  great 
inventions  and  wonderful  discoveries.  Where  it  can 
it  tells  what  is  going  to  occur.  It  tells  what  the 
scientists,  the  educators,  the  law-makers,  the  artists, 
and  the  writers  are  doing,  and  contrasts  the  past  with 


The  American  Newspaper  7 

the  present.  Continually  it  makes  known  that  which 
is  useful  and  instructive,  as  well  as  that  which  is  only 
entertaining.  In  brief,  it  presents  a  picture  of  the 
world's  progress. 

The  third  kind  of  journalism,  which  is  of  com- 
paratively recent  origin,  might  be  regarded  as  not 
completed  but  only  in  process  of  formation.  This  is 
the  so-called  yellow  journalism,  which  got  its  name  in 
1897  w^hen  the  leading  exponent  of  the  school  was  ex- 
ploiting with  much  ostentation  a  series  of  colored 
.pictures  in  which  the  foremost  character  wore  a  yellow 
dress.  One  of  the  long-established  papers  coined  the 
term  "yellow  journalism,"  using  the  word  yellow  in 
its  slang  interpretation,  which  is,  cowardly,  mean, 
contemptible. 

The  first  kind  of  journalism,  that  which  records 
only,  flourishes  best  in  small  towns,  and  is  not  often 
found  in  large  cities.  Most  of  the  papers  which  repre- 
sent this  type  are  nothing  more  than  bread-winners, 
pure  and  simple.  By  their  owners  and  their  editors 
they  are  looked  upon  as  mediums  through  which  a  liv- 
ing is  to  be  gained,  and  as  good  livings  are  rarely 
gained  through  them,  they  are  seldom  regarded  w^ith 
affection.  Hardly  ever  do  the  workers  employed  on 
them  do  their  very  best ;  the  news  columns  they  regard 
as  nothing  more  than  necessary  evils,  which  must  be 
maintained  because  without  them  there  would  be  no 
advertisers,  and  more  important,  no  livings.  This 
kind  of  journalism  needs  no  more  attention  here. 

The  second  kind — that  which  endeavors  to  present 
a  picture  of  the  world's  progress — is  an  ideal  rather 
than  a  reality.  There  are  a  few  papers  w^hich  come 
close  to  it,  some  very  close;  but  a  great  many  which 
aim  to  attain  it  fall  far  short.     Some  reach  the  ideal 


8  Making  a  Newspaper 

in  their  news  columns,  but  through  bias  or  self-interest, 
print  editorials  which  keep  them  from  the  goal. 
Others  fall  short  because  they  fail  to  tell  of  the  com- 
monplace occurrences.  Still  others,  the  majority,  fail 
now  in  one  thing,  now  in  another.  Details  are  their 
undoing,  and  their  owners  and  their  editors,  perhaps 
more  than  any  others,  spy  out  the  weak  places  and  the 
mistakes.  There  are  probably  no  editors  who  see  their 
papers  as  ideals.  But  this  second  kind  of  journalism 
might  be  called  the  standard. 

Within  recent  years  whenever  daily  journalism  is 
discussed,  the  third  kind — yellow  journalism — gets 
the  lion's  share  of  attention.  In  fact,  a  talk  on  jour- 
nalism almost  always  becomes  a  talk  on  yellow  journal- 
ism. The  other  kinds  get  a  few  words,  but  they  are 
lumped  together  and  considered  as  a  negative.  Maga- 
zine writers  handle  yellow  journalism  in  every  con- 
ceivable manner,  college  professors  and  ministers  talk 
about  it,  and  everyone  who  has  fault  to  find  with  the 
public  print  holds  it  responsible.  It  is  an  extremely 
popular  topic  of  conversation;  even  the  ragged  news- 
boys wonder,  starting  their  day's  work,  what  brand  of 
sensation  it  will  permit  them  to  cry. 

Yellow  journalism  originated  through  a  desire  to 
gain  readers  and  advertisers,  and  it  produced  results. 
Its  original  disciples  have  readers  by  the  hundred  thou- 
sand and  they  have  about  all  the  advertising  that  they 
can  well  handle.  More  than  this,  they  are  not  afraid  of 
losing  either  readers  or  advertisers.  The  advertisers 
they  know  they  can  hold  as  long  as  they  have  readers, 
and  the  readers  they  hold  in  a  tight  embrace.  The 
yellow  journals  stole  their  early  patrons  from  no  other 
publications.  Instead,  they  offered  something  attract- 
ive to  persons  not  in  the  habit  of  reading,  and  thus 


The  American  Newspaper  9 

created  a  demand  where  none  had  existed.  And  even 
now  the  bulk  of  the  yellow  journals  go  either  into 
the  hands  of  those  persons  upon  whom  matter-of-fact 
stories  and  subdued  headlines  make  no  impression,  or 
those  who,  while  depending  upon  other  papers  for  in- 
formation which  can  be  accepted  as  true,  elect  to  look 
at  pictures,  read  sensations,  and  acquire  mild  doses  of 
philosophy  in  the  form  of  out-of-the-ordinary  edi- 
torials, as  a  kind  of  relaxation.  To  please  persons  in 
either  class  is  by  no  means  an  easy  task ;  they  demand 
thrills  every  day  and  they  will  not  tolerate  dullness 
or  pedantry.  Because  of  this  the  yellow  journals 
have  room  for  none  other  than  particularly  active 
journalists.  Their  foremost  editors  are  always 
stars  in  their  calling,  and  the  under  editors  and 
the  reporters  are  almost  universally  men  of  education 
who  possess  more  than  average  skill.  Most  of  these 
are  attracted  to  the  yellow  journals  by  higher  pay 
than  they  can  get  elsewhere,  and  it  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  since  the  advent  of  this  style  of  journalism 
newspaper  salaries  have  been  raised  in  most  of  the 
leading  cities.  With  money  the  yellow  journals  are 
prodigal  in  all  departments.  They  pay  good  salaries, 
good  enough  to  capture  almost  every  worker  they 
want,  and  they  rarely  think  of  expense  when  it  is  a 
question  of  getting  news. 

That  the  men  who  make  the  yellow  journals  approve 
of  all  they  do  is  not  to  be  asserted.  The  reporters 
who  manufacture  the  "signed  statements,"  and  get  up 
scares  about  the  ''Black  Hand,"  treat  these  things  as 
'huge  jokes,  and  a  good  many  of  them  look  upon  yellow 
journalism  in  the  same  light.  The  artists  and  head- 
ing builders,  too,  often  regard  it  in  the  same  way,  and 
frequently  extend  themselves  just  to  see  how  foolish 


lo  Making  a  Newspaper 

they  can  be.  The  ecHtors  do  not  Hke  everything  about 
yellow  journalism — the  red,  yellow,  and  green  inks, 
the  double  reading  headlines,  the  exaggeration,  and  the 
bombast — but  they  do  not  consider  it  a  subject  for 
raillery;  at  least  they  do  not  so  acknowledge.  Their 
contention  is  that  they  go  to  extremes  to  attract  readers, 
but  that  in  doing  this  they  gain  wide  foUowings,  and 
are  thus  enabled  to  right  wrongs,  protect  the  weak, 
and  strive  with  effect  for  the  public  good.  That  the 
yellow  journals  really  do  some  of  these  things  cannot 
be  denied.  Since  they  have  come  into  existence  it  has 
ceased  to  be  an  ordinary  occurrence  for  the  officers 
of  banks  gone  to  ruin  through  neglect,  to  say  to  the 
despoiled  depositors:  "We  are  sorry  for  you,  but  we 
can  do  nothing,"  and  for  ambitious  scoundrels  proof 
against  mere  criticism  to  infringe  on  the  public  rights, 
confident  that  they  are  safe  because  no  one  who  is 
competent  will  take  the  trouble  to  interfere.  For  selfish 
ends  or  not,  the  yellow  journals  have  put  a  damper 
on  these  performances  and  a  lot  more  like  them. 

And  it  is  worth  remarking  that  the  yellow  journals 
are  not  so  obtrusive  as  they  were  a  few  years  ago. 
The  worst  have  toned  down,  and  some  papers,  un- 
doubtedly once  among  the  leaders,  are  now  yellow  only 
on  exceedingly  rare  occasions;  first-class  newspapers, 
they  offend  no  oftener  by  over-doing  than  do  their 
most  captious  contemporaries  by  suppressing.  Toned 
down,  yellow  journalism  is  more  fallacious  than 
vicious,  and  its  most  prominent  earmarks  are  im- 
pudence and  impertinence.  And  even  at  its  worst 
yellow  journalism  was  not  as  bad  as  it  was  pictured. 
To  listen  to  some  of  its  enemies  one  would  have 
thought  that  it  instigated  murder,  riot,  theft,  and 
arson  without  end,  and  that  it  was  responsible  for 


The  American  Newspaper  1 1 

most  of  the  crimes  of  every  sort  committed.  In 
reality,  most  of  the  criticism  consisted  of  generahties 
that  meant  Httle  or  nothing.  Adhering  to  facts,  in- 
stances where  yellow  journalism  has  done  worse  than 
exaggerate  and  offend  by  exposing  things  that  might 
better  have  been  hid  from  view  are  hard  to  find. 

In  a  rather  roundabout  way  there  has  crept  into  the 
newspaper  field  in  America,  in  the  last  few  years,  the 
same  tendency  that  has  made  itself  so  manifest  in 
manufacturing — the  tendency  toward  domination  by  a 
comparatively  small  number.  There  are  no  newspaper 
trusts  and  there  are  not  now  any  more  consolidations 
and  mergings  of  different  publications  taking  place 
than  ever  before,  but  all  the  same  the  principle  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  is  making  trouble  for  many  pub- 
lishers. Odd  as  it  may  appear  the  new  move  is  being 
brought  about  by  the  growang  efficiency  of  the  steam 
and  electric  railroads  of  the  country,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  the  rural  mail  delivery  system.  With  the 
adding  of  every  new  train  and  the  improvement  of 
every  new  time-table,  the  building  of  every  new  trol- 
ley road,  and  the  establishment  of  every  new  mail 
route,  the  big  city  papers  are  enabled  to  reach  out 
further,  and,  wherever  they  reach,  the  local  papers 
suffer,  their  readers  forsaking  them  for  the  better 
and  usually  cheaper  importations.  There  is  not 
a  paper  published  in  any  city  between  New  York 
and  Boston  that  has  not  in  the  last  ten  years 
been  hurt  by  the  papers  of  these  two  cities,  and  in 
some  of  the  small  towns  the  local  papers  have  had 
inroads  made  on  their  business  that  have  come  nigh 
wrecking  them.  All  through  Pennsylvania  the  same 
conditions  exist,  the  small  town  papers  being  affected 
by  the  appearance  in  their  territory  of  the  Philadelphia 


12  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  Pittsburg  publications.  Nor  are  the  small  cities 
and  towns  the  only  places  where  the  call  for  newspapers 
is  in  part  supplied  from  outside.  The  great  city  of 
Brooklyn  does  not  boast  of  a  single  morning  paper,  the 
New  York  papers  supplying  the  entire  demand,  and  so 
thoroughly  do  the  Pittsburg  papers  dominate  their  sec- 
tion of  the  country  that  Allegheny,  a  city  having  a 
population  of  over  125,000,  cannot  support  an  Eng- 
lish daily,  either  morning  or  evening.  Jersey  City 
and  Newark  both  have  excellent  local  papers,  publica- 
tions that  are  enterprising  and  efficient,  but  with  the 
New  York  morning  papers  landing  in  these  cities  long 
before  daw^n  and  the  evening  papers  coming  in  at  every 
hour  of  the  day,  the  papers  of  both  places  have  to  be 
content  with  less  than  they  deserve,  although  they  wage 
constant  warfare  with  the  papers  of  the  smaller  New 
Jersey  cities  that  are  nearby. 

The  country  weeklies,  too,  find  themselves  every 
year  subject  to  greater  competition.  Many  that  were 
published  close  to  large  cities  have  been  forced  to  the 
wall,  and  many  others  have  been  compelled  to  lower 
their  subscription  price  until,  once  great  money-makers, 
they  now  do  little  more  than  earn  bare  livings  for  their 
owners.  Fifteen  years  ago  $2.00  a  year  was  not 
considered  an  exorbitant  price  for  a  country  weekly. 
Now  $1  a  year  is  all  that  most  country  papers — there 
are  over  12,000  of  them  in  the  United  States — dare 
ask.  The  saving  grace  of  the  country  weekly  pub- 
lished near  a  large  city  is  the  job  office. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  at  the  present  time 
over  2300  daily  publications,  and  in  the  aggregate 
they  issue  every  day  above  15,000,000  papers,  enough 
to  supply  one  copy  to  every  five  inhabitants.  In  some 
cities  the   aggregate  circulation   compared   with   the 


The  American  Newspaper  13 

population  would  indicate  that  there  were  four  copies 
printed  to  every  six  persons,  but  this  is  an  exaggeration 
explainable  when  one  thinks  of  the  conditions  in  a  place 
like  Pittsburg,  where  the  newspapers  have  almost  as 
many  readers  outside  of  the  actual  city  as  they  have  in 
it.  Evening  dailies  outnumber  morning  dailies  about 
two  to  one,  and  in  the  smaller  cities  the  evening  papers 
are  increasing  the  more  rapidly  largely  because  the 
evening  papers  are  less  susceptible  to  outside  competi- 
tion. It  must  be  here  pointed  out  that  while  there  are 
over  2300  dailies  published  in  the  United  States,  some 
of  these  are  printed  in  foreign  languages  or  are  neigh- 
borhood or  class  publications,  such  as  financial  reviews 
and  stock-yard  reports,  which  do  not  make  a  universal 
appeal  for  patronage.  This  is  particularly  true  in 
Manhattan  and  Bronx  boroughs,  which  are  ordinarily 
considered  as  making  up  the  city  of  New  York.  In 
these  boroughs  there  are  47  daily  publications,  but  of 
this  number  there  are  only  15  printed  in  English 
which  aim  to  present  the  news  of  the  world  and  are 
circulated  broadcast.  Outside  of  New  York  the  differ- 
ence is  not  so  great,  but  in  every  large  city  the  special 
publications  exist.  How  many  English  daily  news- 
papers, using  the  word  in  its  generally  accepted  sense, 
there  are  in  the  country  it  is  impossible  to  determine, 
for  there  is  no  line  of  demarcation,  some  of  the  class 
publications  presenting  fairly  complete  accounts  of 
certain  kinds  of  general  news,  but  whatever  the  num- 
ber, there  are  about  175  printed  in  cities  having  over 
100,000  inhabitants,  and  when  a  young  man  at  the 
present  time  talks  about  "going  in  for  journalism," 
his  ultimate  aim  is,  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred, 
one  of  these  papers.  The  big  city  daily  is  now  the 
thing. 


14  Making  a  Newspaper 

Among  old-time  newspaper  workers  it  is  often 
said  that  the  foundation  of  distinctive  American  jour- 
nahsm  was  laid  in  1835,  when  James  Gordon  Bennett 
started  to  publish  the  New  York  Herald.  Previous 
to  that  time  the  editors  of  the  country  thought  more  of 
molding  public  opinion  than  they  did  of  presenting  the 
news,  and  their  highest  ambition  apparently  was  to 
become  involved  in  editorial  controversies.  When  an 
editor  felt  called  upon  to  tell  how  the  country  should  be 
run,  or  to  lambaste  another  editor,  the  news  was  allowed 
to  go,  and  even  when  his  mind  was  at  peace  he  kept 
his  dignity.  The  Herald  from  the  start  was  run  on  a 
different  principle.  It  aimed  first  to  give  the  news, 
and  the  editor  did  not  wait  for  the  news  to  be  brought 
to  him;  he  went  out  and  got  it,  and  w^hen  it  became 
necessary  he  went  pretty  far.  That  he  had  the  right 
ideas  as  to  what  the  people  wanted  was  quickly  shown. 
Starting  with  a  capital  of  less  than  five  hundred  dol- 
lars he  had  his  paper  firmly  established  within  a  few 
years,  and  in  the  early  forties  he  was  well  on  the  high- 
way of  success.  The  innovations  introduced  by  the 
Herald  caused  the  editors  of  the  long-established 
papers  to  scoff,  but  by  degrees  they  had  to  make  con- 
cessions and  in  self-defense  join  in  the  work  of  pre- 
sentino-  Facts ;  and  once  the  new  ideas  were  installed 
competition  in  the  m.odern  sense  was  quick  to  follow. 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion  had  much  to  do  with  con- 
verting the  American  people  into  a  nation  of  news- 
paper readers.  The  controversy  over  the  Slavery 
question  and  the  stirring  events  leading  up  to  hostilities 
stimulated  interest  and  made  many  readers,  but  after 
the  fighting  began  the  demand  for  information  became 
universal.  Contributing  its  quota  of  soldiers,  every 
hamlet  thereafter  had  a  direct  interest  in  what  was 


The  American  Newspaper  15 

going  on  at  the  front.  And  the  demand  for  news 
gave  American  journaHsm  fresh  impetus,  for  no  paper, 
however  small,  could  fail  to  hear  the  cry  for  informa- 
tion of  camps  and  battles,  the  killed  and  the  wounded. 
The  large  city  papers,  enabled  through  the  increased 
circulation,  and  the  growing  receipts  from  advertising, 
to  make  expenditures  that  a  few  years  before  would 
have  been  impossible,  responded  by  sending  reporters 
to  the  front,  and  making  use  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
heretofore  employed  sparingly;  the  papers  printed,  in 
small  towns  contented  themselves  with  clipping  the 
great  news  from  the  large  city  publications,  but  this 
they  supplemented  with  letters  written  by  soldiers 
well  known  to  all  their  readers.  By  the  close  of  the 
war  there  were  few  persons  indifferent  to  the  news, 
and  no  papers  which  did  not  realize  that  news  was 
considered  before  comment. 

But  journalism  w^ould  never  have  attained  the  posi- 
tion it  occupies  either  in  America  or  elsewhere,  had  it 
not  been  for  improvements  in  the  art  of  printing.  Even 
after  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century  had  passed 
the  newspaper  printing  press  was  nothing  more  than  a 
machine  built  on  the  lines  of  the  familiar  letter 
copying  press.  The  type  form  was  inked  with  a 
hand  roller,  and  after  the  sheet  of  paper  had  been 
adjusted  the  impression  was  made  by  forcing  down  the 
press's  top.  Only  one  impression  was  made  at  a  time, 
and  each  sheet  had  to  go  through  the  press  twice  to  be 
printed  on  both  sides.  In  those  days  a  paper  could 
not  have  gained  a  circulation  of  much  over  1000,  even 
had  the  demand  existed,  for  this  was  close  to  the  limit 
of  the  press's  capacity.  The  ordinary  cylinder  press 
such  as  is  seen  now  in  small  country  newspaper  offices, 
although  in  an  improved  form,  came  into  use  about 


i6  Making  a  Newspaper 

1830.  In  this  press  the  type  forms,  two  pages  at  a 
time,  are  laid  on  a  flat  bed  and  moved  backward  and 
forward  under  a  heavy  revolving  drum,  the  paper 
being  fed  by  hand  from  a  table  built  at  one  end.  With 
mechanical  power  this  press  has  a  capacity  of  about 
1500  an  hour.  In  1846  came  the  forerunner  of  the 
modern  press,  a  method  then  being  discovered  of 
attaching  the  type  form  to  the  drum  instead  of  to  the 
press  bed.  Following  this  came  the  process  of  stereo- 
typing which  permitted  the  reproduction  of  the  types 
in  a  curved  plate  which  could  be  attached  to  a 
revolving  cylinder,  to  w^hich  a  half-dozen  men  could 
feed  sheets  of  paper.  Then,  in  1871,  came  the  web 
press,  with  stereotyped  plates  fastened  to  several 
cylinders  and  the  paper  feeding  in  from  a  spool,  or 
web.  In  the  m.odern  web-perfecting  press,  which  is 
really  a  num.ber  of  presses  built  together,  the  blank 
paper  passes  into  the  machine  from  several  spools,  and 
the  papers  come  out  printed  on  both  sides,  pasted, 
folded,  and  cut  all  ready  for  distribution.  There  are 
to-day  in  use  presses  which  the  builders  say  can  print 
192,000  eight-page  papers  in  an  hour. 

The  typesetting  machine,  long  the  dream  of  in- 
ventors, did  not  come  until  late  in  the  century,  and 
even  then  it  did  not  come  in  the  form  expected,  for 
the  pioneer  machine,  still  the  leader,  instead  of  setting 
types  such  as  are  used  by  hand  workers,  casts  through 
the  use  of  brass  matrices  solid  lines  of  reading  matter. 
As  late  as  1880  the  government  census  report  dealing 
with  printing,  after  speaking  of  the  many  improve- 
ments made,  said :  "The  ingenuity  of  man  has  not  yet 
invented  a  substitute  for  the  setting  of  type  by  hand, 
the  method  of  composition  remaining  precisely  the 
same  as  it  was  when  printing  was  first  invented."     In 


The  American  Newspaper  17 

1886,  Ottmar  Mergenthaler,  of  Baltimore,  announced 
that  he  had  accomplished  the  feat,  but  four  years  later 
the  hand  compositors  were  still  contending  that  the 
new-fangled  contrivances  would  soon  be  relegated  to 
the  scrap  heap,  while  the  majority  of  publishers  were 
holding  off  to  see  what  would  happen.  In  1894  only 
200  of  the  machines  were  in  use.  In  1906,  in  the 
United  States  alone  their  number  was  over  10,000, 
while  about  half  as  many  more  were  found  in  England. 
Each  machine  can  do  as  much  work  as  five  average 
hand  compositors.  Since  Mergenthaler  announced 
his  invention  other  machines  have  been  placed  on  the 
market,  and  in  the  United  States  there  is  now  scarcely 
a  daily  paper  published  in  a  town  of  over  25,000  in- 
habitants which  depends  upon  hand  composition. 

The  new-style  presses,  the  stereotype  plates,  and  the 
mechanical  compositors  neither  alone  nor  together, 
however,  would  have  made  possible  the  newspaper  as  it 
exists  had  not  the  manufacturers  of  paper  made  won- 
derful progress.  As  late  as  1862  the  paper  ordinarily 
used  by  newspapers  cost  twenty-four  cents  a  pound. 
It  was  made  from  cotton  rags,  and  the  increasing  de- 
mand for  rags  having  pretty  well  equaled  the  supply 
the  outlook  was  for  higher  prices.  Relief  came  when 
it  was  discovered  that  serviceable  paper  could  be  made 
from  wood  pulp,  and  since  this,  reading  is  within  the 
reach  of  all.  To-day  the  newspapers  get  their  blank 
paper  in  rolls  weighing  about  a  half  a  ton  at  a  cost  of 
a  fraction  over  two  cents  a  pound,  and  spend  the 
money  that  would  have  gone  for  paper  in  getting  news. 

As  a  result  of  all  the  changes  in  the  art  of  print- 
ing, newspapers  are  to-day  about  as  cheap  as  anything 
on  earth.  One  cent  is  the  prevailing  price  only  be- 
cause no  smaller  coin  is  issued.     They  would  probably 


1 8  Making  a  Newspaper 

in  some  instances  be  given  away  were  it  not  that  pub- 
lishers are  well  aware  that  people  do  not  attach  much 
value  to  things  which  anyone  can  get  for  nothing.  The 
old  joke  about  the  ''circulation  liar"  now  misses  the 
mark  so  far  as  the  large  cities  are  concerned.  A  one- 
cent  paper,  in  the  largest  cities,  which  has  a  circulation 
of  only  50,000,  which  was  about  the  limit  anywhere 
forty  years  ago,  is  ashamed  of  it  and  refuses  to  show 
its  books,  and  100,000  circulations  cause  no  wide  com- 
ment. In  New  York  at  the  present  time  there  are 
papers  w^hich,  every  day,  each  print  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  a  half  million  copies.  It  is  worth  mentioning 
here  that  in  1830  daily  papers  often  sold  for  six  cents 
a  copy  and  that  it  was  not  until  1833  that  a  penny 
paper  was  established  in  New  York. 

Daily  newspapers,  when  their  time  of  issue  marks  the 
distinction,  are  divided  into  two  classes,  morning  and 
evening.  A  paper  of  the  class  first  mentioned  is  true 
to  its  name  in  that  it  is  printed  and  issued  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  a  large  part  of  the  work  on  it  is  performed 
during  the  hours  of  darkness  w^hich  most  persons 
think  of  as  constituting  night.  Reporters  and  editors, 
however,  never  forget  that  as  time  is  measured,  night 
ends  at  midnight.  If  in  the  course  of  an  evening  a 
reporter  employed  on  a  morning  paper  is  writing  about 
an  event  of  the  afternoon  he  writes  "yesterday  after- 
noon," knowing  that  his  paper  will  not  be  printed 
until  the  next  day  is  several  hours  old.  But  when 
after  midnight  he  is  required  to  write  concerning  some- 
thing that  happened  a  m.inute  or  so  after  the  clock 
marked  the  beginning  of  another  day,  he  is  careful 
to  employ  the  words,  "this  morning,"  with  a  thought 
to  the  impression  it  will  create  on  the  persons  who 
will  read  the  article  a  few  hours  later.     It  is  to  be  sup- 


The  American  Newspaper  19 

posed  that  the  man,  who,  rising  from  the  breakfast 
table  at  8  o'clock,  picks  up  his  paper  and  reads  in  it 
about  something  which  occurred  that  same  morning, 
will  be  more  than  ever  convinced  that  his  favorite 
journal  is  an  enterprising  publication.  A  reporter  for 
an  evening  paper  is  equally  quick  to  score  by  using 
''this  morning''  instead  of  'last  night,"  and  he  will 
stretch  a  point  to  get  in  the  word  "to-day."  ''Yester- 
day" he  steers  clear  of  when  he  can. 

The  first  evening  papers  were  not  printed  until  late 
in  the  afternoon,  but  publications  of  this  kind  have 
advanced  their  time  of  issue  until  now  some  of  them  ap- 
pear on  the  street  as  early  as  7  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
In  New  York  the  most  aggressive  evening  papers 
issue  about  ten  regular  editions,  the  last  one  some- 
where near  7  o'clock  in  the  evening;  extra  edi- 
tions are  issued  later  whenever  the  editors  deem  them 
necessary.  Morning  newspapers  issue  anywhere  from 
two  to  five  editions.  The  first,  which  usually  starts  to 
come  from  the  presses  soon  after  i  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  is  for  out-of-town  circulation  exclusively. 
The  last,  commonly  issued  at  3.30  o'clock,  is  for  local 
readers.  Intermediate  editions  are  sent  to  nearby 
suburban  towns  or  to  particular  sections. 

The  only  part  of  the  Sunday  paper  which  is  printed 
on  the  day  of  issue  is  that  which  contains  the  news. 
The  colored  supplements  are  printed  two  or  three 
weeks  in  advance,  and  the  sections  devoted  to  special 
stories  are  usually  run  off  the  presses  over  a  week 
before  they  get  into  the  public's  hands.  Very  often, 
all  the  supplements  are  delivered  to  the  newsdealers 
on  Thursday  and  Friday,  so  that  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, the  circulation  manager  need  only  attend  to  the 
distribution   of   the   section   that   contains   the   news. 


20  Making  a  Newspaper 

Where  this  is  done  the  retail  dealers  assemble  the 
various  sections,  commonly  putting  the  one  which 
contains  the  news  or  one  containing  colored  pic- 
tures on  the  outside.  The  dealers,  unless  they  exercise 
care  in  the  assembling,  produce  sad  mix-ups,  and  it  is 
because  of  this  danger  that  the  Sunday  papers  warn 
purchasers  to  make  sure  that  they  get  all  the  pages  to 
which  they  are  entitled. 

When  two  papers,  one  a  morning  and  the  other  an 
evening  publication,  are  issued  from  the  same  estab- 
lishment, they  have,  so  far  as  most  of  the  workers  on 
them  can  see,  very  little  in  common.  Each  paper  has 
its  own  editorial  rooms,  they  have  different  editors 
except  for  the  editor-in-chief,  and  there  are,  except  in 
rare  instances  where  they  employ  jointly  a  few  men  to 
watch  certain  places  such  as  minor  courts,  two  dis- 
tinct forces  of  reporters.  Often  the  editors  of  one 
paper  do  not  know  those  of  the  other  even  by  sight, 
and  frequently  there  is  not  much  love  lost  between  the 
two  corps  of  reporters,  partly  because  the  standard  of 
pay  is  not  the  same  for  the  two  papers.  Each  manag- 
ing editor  acts  independently  when  engaging  corre- 
spondents to  furnish  the  news  of  places  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  although  usually  the  two  papers 
support  one  set  of  foreign  correspondents  between 
them.  Each  paper  has  its  distinct  force  of  workmen  in 
the  mechanical  departments,  and  sometimes  there  are 
two  sets  of  presses.  Always,  however,  there  is  only 
one  business  manager  and  one  business  office. 

Repeatedly  owners  have  tried  to  merge  the  entire 
reportorial  staffs  of  their  morning  and  evening  papers, 
but  so  far  none  of  the  attempts  have  proved  successful. 
When  the  last  one  was  made  in  New  York  the  news- 
gatherers  who  were  ordered  to  write  two  accounts  of 


The  American  Newspaper  21 

every  story  they  reported  protested  vigorously  and 
backed  up  their  protests  by  making  their  second  stories 
brief  and  uninteresting;  many  of  them  contended  that 
even  doing  their  best  they  could  not  put  much  life  into 
their  second  stories.  To  the  remonstrances  of  the 
reporters  were  soon  added  those  of  the  editors,  who 
declared  that  under  the  new  system  their  work  was 
badly  hampered.  They  said  that  while  sometimes 
they  found  themselves  with  two  accounts  of  one  hap- 
pening, they  often  as  a  result  of  misunderstandings, 
late  in  the  day,  found  themselves  without  stories  that 
were  badly  needed,  and  that,  more  than  this,  many  of 
the  articles  which  came  to  them  for  use  were  poorly 
written  and  fit  only  for  the  wastebasket.  The  attempt 
to  combine  the  two  staffs  of  reporters  in  this  instance 
was  abandoned  after  a  few  weeks'  trial. 


CHAPTER  II 
NEWSPAPER  OFFICE  ORGANIZATION 

The  working  forces  of  a  modern  newspaper  are 
organized  much  as  are  the  forces  of  an  army.  There 
is  one  man  who  corresponds  to  a  commander-in-chief ; 
others  who  might  be  hkened  to  generals  of  divisions; 
under  these  a  great  number  of  minor  officers,  and,  last, 
a  host  of  privates.  Each  individual  has  certain  duties 
to  perform,  but  each  one's  province  is  slightly  over- 
lapped from  both  above  and  below,  with  the  result 
that  no  person  is  indispensable. 

First,  always,  comes  the  owner  of  the  paper,  the 
proprietor.  Customarily  he  contents  himself  with  en- 
gaging the  business  manager  and  three  or  four  of  the 
foremost  editors,  but  he  can  step  in  whenever  he 
chooses,  and  he  never  allows  those  subject  to  his  wishes 
to  forget  that  while  he  may  at  times  be  open  to  con- 
viction, he  is  not  to  be  denied  after  he  has  made  up  his 
mind.  When  the  paper  comes  in  for  commendation 
the  owner  usually  manages  to  get  a  place  well  in  the 
foreground,  where  he  can  be  seen  without  difficulty; 
but  he  is  entitled  to  all  the  honors  he  gets,  for  if  the 
paper  makes  a  mistake  the  public  forgets  all  about  his 
subordinates  and  vents  its  ire  on  him,  as  if  he  were 
alone  responsible.  And  the  fact  that  the  public  usually 
knows  upon  whom  to  direct  its  attacks  when  a  news- 
paper makes  an  unpopular  move,  proves  clearly  that 
those  persons  who  declare  that  modern  newspapers  are 

22 


Newspaper  Office  Organization  23 

published  by  greedy  corporations  and  have  no  indi- 
viduahty,  are  wrong.  The  ownership  of  many  of 
the  larger  papers  is  divided,  but  where  a  paper  is  emi- 
nently successful  it  almost  always  has  associated  with 
it  the  name  of  some  one  man.  What  those  persons 
who  sadly  announce  that  newspapers  have  lost  their 
individuality  mean,  is  that  the  owners  now  occupy  the 
prominence  once  given  to  editors;  and  it  might  be 
added  that  an  owner-editor,  the  general  public  having 
come  to  realize  that  a  great  newspaper  is  not  a  one- 
man  product,  now  gets  the  title  owner,  whereas 
an  owner-editor  was  once  regarded  as  an  editor  only. 

Daily  journalism  has,  however,  lost  its  individuality 
to  the  extent  that  there  are  at  the  present  time  almost 
no  owners  of  any  prominence  who  look  upon  their 
papers  as  mediums  through  which  to  air  their  likes 
and  dislikes,  as  was  the  custom  a  half  century  ago. 
They  no  longer  attack  private  citizens  simply  because 
they  have  grievances  against  them,  and  they  do  not  get 
their  own  private  affairs  mixed  up  with  their  business 
as  publishers  or  editors.  The  changes  that  have  come 
about  cannot  be  better  illustrated  than  by  referring  to 
two  editorials  that  were  printed  in  New  York  in 
January,  1844;  one  in  the  Morning  Courier  and  New 
York  Enquirer^  of  w^hich  James  Watson  Webb  was 
editor,  the  other  in  the  Tribune,  edited  by  the  great 
Horace  Greeley.  Angered  by  an  article  appearing  in 
the  Tribune  m  the  course  of  a  controversy  concerning 
the  question  of  lower  postage  rates,  Mr.  Webb  paid  his 
respects  to  Mr.  Greeley  in  part  as  follows : 

"The  Editor  of  the  Tribune  is  an  abolitionist;  we, 
precisely  the  reverse.  He  is  a  Philosopher;  we  are  a 
Christian.  He  is  a  pupil  of  Graham,  and  would  have 
all  the  world  live  upon  bran  bread  and  saw^dust;  we 


24  Making  a  Newspaper 

are  in  favor  of  living  as  our  fathers  did,  and  of  enjoy- 
ing in  moderation  the  good  things  which  God  has 
bestowed  upon  us.  .  .  .  He  seeks  for  notoriety  by 
pretending  to  great  eccentricity  of  character  and  habits, 
and  by  the  strangeness  of  his  theories  and  practices; 
we,  on  the  contrary,  are  content  with  following  in  the 
beaten  path  and  accomplishing  the  good  we  can  in  the 
old-fashioned  way.  He  lays  claim  to  greatness  by 
wandering  through  the  streets  with  a  hat  double  the 
size  of  his  head,  a  coat  after  the  fashion  of  Jacob's 
of  old,  with  one  leg  of  his  pantaloons  inside  and 
the  other  outside  of  his  boot,  and  with  boots  all  spat- 
tered with  mud,  or  possibly  a  shoe  on  one  foot  and  a 
boot  on  the  other,  and  glorying  in  an  unwashed  and 
unshaven  person.  We,  on  the  contrary,  eschew  all 
such  affectations  as  weak  and  silly ;  we  think  there  is  a 
difference  betv/een  notoriety  and  distinction;  we  recog- 
nize the  social  obligation  to  act  and  dress  according  to 
our  station  in  life;  and  we  look  upon  cleanliness  of 
person  as  inseparable  from  purity  of  thought  and 
benevolence  of  heart.  In  short,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
resemblance  between  the  Editor  of  the  Tribune  and 
ourselves  politically,  personally,  or  socially:  and  it  is 
only  when  his  affectation  and  impudence  are  unbear- 
able that  we  condescend  to  notice  him  or  his  press." 

To  this  arraignment  Mr.  Greeley,  in  the  next  issue  of 
his  paper,  replied  with  a  column  editorial  in  the  course 
of  which  he  said : 

"As  to  our  personal  appearance,  it  does  seem  time 
that  we  should  say  something,  to  stay  the  flood  of  non- 
sense with  which  the  town  must  by  this  time  be  nau- 
seated. Some  donkey  a  while  ago,  apparently  anxious 
to  assail  or  annoy  the  editor  of  this  paper,  and  not  well 
knowing  with  what,  originated  the  story  of  his  care- 


Newspaper  Office  Organization         25 

lessness  of  personal  appearance;  and  since  then  every 
blockhead  of  the  same  disposition  and  distressed  by  a 
similar  lack  of  ideas  has  repeated  and  exaggerated 
the  foolery ;  until  from  its  origin  in  the  Albany  Micro- 
scope it  has  sunk  down  at  last  to  the  columns  of  the 
Courier  and  Enquirer^  growing  more  absurd  at  every 
landing.  Yet  all  this  time  the  object  of  this  silly 
raillery  has  doubtless  worn  better  clothes  than  two- 
thirds  of  those  who  thus  assailed  him — better  than 
any  of  them  could  honestly  wear,  if  they  paid  their 
debts  otherwise  than  by  bankruptcy ;  while,  if  they  are 
indeed  more  cleanly  than  he,  they  must  bathe  very 
thoroughly  not  less  than  twice  a  day.  The  editor  of 
the  Tribune  is  the  son  of  a  poor  and  humble  farmer; 
came  to  New  York  as  a  minor  without  a  friend  wnthin 
two  hundred  miles,  less  than  ten  dollars  in  his  pocket, 
and  precious  little  besides;  he  has  never  had  a  dollar 
from  a  relative,  and  has  for  years  labored  under  a  load 
of  debt  (thrown  on  him  by  others'  misconduct  and  the 
revulsion  of  1837),  which  he  can  now  just  see  to  the 
end  of.  Thenceforth  he  may  be  able  to  make  a  better 
show  if  deemed  essential  by  his  friends :  for  himself, 
he  has  not  much  time  or  thought  to  bestow  on  the 
matter.  That  he  ever  affected  eccentricity  is  most 
untrue :  and  certainly  no  costume  he  ever  appeared  in 
would  create  such  a  sensation  in  Broadway  as  that 
James  Watson  Webb  would  have  w^orn  but  for  the 
clemency  of  Gov.  Seward.  Heaven  grant  our  assail- 
ant may  never  hang  with  such  weight  on  another 
Whig  Executive.     We  drop  him." 

The  reference  to  the  garb  that  Mr.  Webb  might  have 
worn  calls  for  the  explanation  that  after  having  been 
sentenced  to  prison  for  fighting  a  duel,  he  was  saved  by 
a  pardon. 


26  Making  a  Newspaper 

Although  no  large  newspaper  would  at  the  present 
time  publish  editorials  anything  like  those  quoted, 
newspaper  workers  know  that  the  owners  of  the  great 
dailies,  or  the  men  who  hold  the  controlling  interests 
in  them,  are  never  mere  figureheads  as  is  frequently 
assumed  by  outsiders.  The  measure  in  which  a  paper 
actually  reflects  the  ideas  of  its  owner  depends,  though, 
upon  the  man's  inclinations,  habits,  capabilities,  and 
individuality.  If  he  delights  in  active  newspaper 
work,  keeps  in  close  touch  with  his  paper, — and  in 
these  days  he  can  do  this  even  though  he  be  thousands 
of  miles  away  from  the  editorial  rooms, — is  an  able 
manager,  and  has  a  strong  character,  it  will  voice  his 
sentiments  in  every  issue.  If  he  elects  to  give  his 
time  to  other  interests,  shirks  responsibility,  or  lacks 
force,  it  will  represent  him  only  in  a  general  way;  its 
methods  will  be  those  of  which  he  approves,  but  the 
men  he  hires  will  determine  how  the  methods  shall  be 
applied. 

There  are  in  every  large  newspaper  office  three  main 
^  departments  and  three  classes  of  workers.  One  class 
includes  all  those  persons  who  have  to  do  with  the 
paper's  financial  affairs,  the  business  manager  and  his 
assistants ;  another!  includes  the  editors  and  reporters, 
the  men  who  supply  the  reading  matter;  and  in  the 
third  are  the  mechanical  workers,  the  compositors, 
stereotypers,  and  pressmen.  The  men  who  distribute 
the  printed  papers  really  make  up  a  fourth  classy  but 
because  they  are  directed  by  the  business  manager,  or 
one  of  his  assistants,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
actual  making  of  the  paper,  they  are  by  newspaper 
workers  considered  as  a  part  of  the  business  office 
force. 

At  the  head  of  the  business  department  is  the  busi- 


Newspaper  Office  Organization         27 

ness  manager,  the  holder  of  the  purse.  Under  him  are 
the  advertising  manager,  who  sells  space  in  the  adver- 
tising columns  of  the  paper;  the  circulation  manager, 
who  supervises  the  distribution  of  the  printed  papers 
to  the  newsdealers  who  retail  them  to  the  public;  and 
,the_cashier^  who  handles  the  receipts  and  disburse- 
ments. Under  each  of  these  men  is  a  large  force  in- 
cluding, respectively,  solicitors;  mailroom  men,  wagon 
drivers,  and  porters;  and  bookkeepers  and  clerks. 

First  in  the  editorial  department,  next  to  the  owner, 
comes  the  editor-in-chief,  who  looks  after  the  paper's 
general  welfare,  paying  particular  attention  to  the  edi- 
torials. The  managing  editor,  who  is  next  in  authority, 
has  charge  of  the  news,  supervises  its  collection,  and 
sees  that  it  is  properly  prepared  for  publication. 
Under  the  managing  editor,  who  usually  has  an  as- 
sistant, are  the  city  editor  and  night  city  editor,  who 
handle  the  local  news;  the  telegraph  editor,  who  col- 
lects and  prepares  for  publication  all  the  news  that 
comes  from  outside  of  the  city ;  the  artists  and  cartoon- 
ists, and  the  various  department  heads,  including  the 
exchange  editor,  who  reads  the  out-of-town  papers  that 
come  to  the  office,  in  search  of  material  worth  reprint- 
ing ;  the  music,  art,  and  dramatic  critics ;  the  financial, 
sporting,  real  estate,  and  society  editors,  and  the  edi- 
tor of  the  Sunday  supplements.  Usually  the  managing 
editor  engages  all  the  special  editors,  who  are  account- 
able to  him.  The  city  editor  directs  the  reporters, 
while  the  telegraph  editor  supervises  the  work  of  the 
correspondents,  who  are,  in  reality,  reporters  stationed 
outside  of  the  city.  Both  these  editors  are  assisted  by 
staffs  of  copy  readers,  who  edit  the  articles  submitted 
and  write  the  headings  for  them. 

In  the  mechanical  department  of  a  newspaper  there 


28  Making  a  Newspaper 

are  three  heads :  the  foreman  of  the  composing  room, 
the  foreman  of  the  stereotypers,  and  the  superintendent 
of  the  pressroom. 

To  a  newspaper  worker  no  definite  impression  is 
conveyed  wdien  one  merely  says  that  a  man  is  an  editor. 
The  financial  editor,  for  example,  is  a  writer.  He 
may  have  two  or  three  newsgatherers  to  whom  he  must 
give  some  attention,  under  his  care,  but  his  principal 
task  is  the  preparation  of  an  article  dealing  with  values. 
The  telegraph  editor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  busy  most 
of  the  time  with  actual  editing,  correcting,  pruning,  or 
embellishing;  rarely  does  he  write  a  complete  article. 
The  managing  editor  and  the  city  editor  neither  write 
nor  edit.  Their  work  calls  only  for  directing.  Thus 
an  editor  may  be  a  writer,  a  reader  of  manuscripts,  or  a 
director. 

There  are  many  persons  who  labor  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  reporters,  in  whose  ranks  most  of 
the  editors  have  started,  merely  carry  the  information 
they  collect  to  their  offices,  and  there  turn  it  over  to 
editors  to  be  written.  But  the  impression  is  a  false 
one.  The  reporter  who  investigates  an  occurrence 
writes  about  it  unless  he  transmits  his  news  to  the 
office  over  a  telephone  wire,  and  when  the  telephone 
is  employed  the  story  is  written  by  another  reporter 
and  not  by  an  editor.  The  stories  written  by  the  re- 
porters must  be  good  enough,  too,  to  be  printed  almost 
as  they  reach  the  editors.  It  might  here  be  explained 
that  the  word  "story"  is  used  by  newspaper  workers 
in  a  variety  of  ways.  The  newsgatherer  who  has  been 
sent  out  to  report  a  fire,  meeting  an  acquaintance  who 
asks  him  on  what  he  is  engaged,  says  that  he  is  after, 
or  covering,  a  "fire  story."  On  returning  to  his  office, 
he  says  that  he  has  a  story  about  a  fire,  and  the  editor 


Newspaper  Office  Organization        29 

to  whom  he  gives  an  outline  of  his  information  tells 
him  to  write  a  story  of  a  half  column  or  some  other 
length.  Through  writing  the  reporter  calls  his  manu- 
script his  story,  and  later  talking  with  another  re- 
porter, may  tell  him  that  the  story,  meaning  the  fire 
and  the  attending  incidents,  was  a  hard  one  to  cover. 
It  is  apparent  that  the  constant  employment  of  the 
word  makes  it  possible  to  dispense  with  many  explana- 
tions. When  a  paper  prints  a  story  that  all  its  rivals 
missed,  the  editors  say  that  they  have  scored  a  "beat" 
or  a  "scoop." 

While  every  large  newspaper  has  its  forces  organ- 
ized on  the  same  general  plan,  it  is  impossible  to  say 
that  this  or  that  editor  always  performs  such  and  such 
work,  for  almost  every  office  is  distinctive  in  some  par- 
ticular. In  most  establishments  the  editor-in-chief  is 
the  power  that  makes  the  paper  what  it  is ;  in  a  few  the 
managing  editor  is  the  real  leader,  and  in  a  very  few 
the  city  editor  stands  close  enough  to  the  owner  to 
exert  influence  at  least  as  great  as  that  of  either  of 
the  others.  In  contrast,  there  are  city  editors  who 
are  in  reality  nothing  more  than  chief  copy  readers, 
the  managing  editors  or  assistant  managing  editors 
going  over  their  heads  when  there  is  need  for  real 
planning  in  the  assigning  of  the  reporters.  Because 
there  is  this  element  of  individuality,  one  describing 
the  organization  of  a  newspaper's  forces  cannot  keep 
a  particular  office  in  view.  It  is  necessary,  rather,  to 
take  a  number  of  them  and,  picking  out  those  things 
which  the  majority  have  in  common,  describe  them  in 
general. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Although  every  newspaper  is  dominated  by  its 
owner,  the  character  of  the  pubHcation  and  the  meas- 
ure of  success  which  it  attains  depend  to  a  great 
extent  upon  the  editor-in-chief.  In  the  owner's  ab- 
sence he  works  nine-tenths  of  the  time  free-handed  and 
rarely  under  hard  and  fast  orders,  for  almost  all  of  the 
few  commands  that  are  transmitted  to  him  are  of  a 
general  nature  and  permit  of  liberal  interpretations; 
and,  when  the  owner  is  on  the  scene,  he  is  still  power- 
ful, for  then  he  serves  as  chief  adviser  and  close  con- 
fidant. Moreover,  he  has  a  heavy  vote  in  all  vital 
questions,  for  the  owner  never  forgets  that  it  is  part 
of  the  editor-in-chief's  duties  to  solve  the  hard  and 
vexatious  problems  and  point  out  the  safe  way.  The 
explicit  orders  that  he  gets  the  editor-in-chief  of  course 
carries  out  to  the  letter,  and  he  is  slow  to  introduce 
radical  innovations  offhand,  for  he  is  well  aware  that 
he  obtained  the  office  he  holds  because  his  known  views 
and  methods  met  with  the  owner's  approval.  By  the 
other  workers  the  editor-in-chief  is  regarded  as  the 
owner's  personal  representative,  and  they  obey  him  ex- 
plicitly, partly  because  they  have  no  means  of  knowing 
which  of  the  orders  he  gives  are  original  with  him  and 
which  he  is  merely  transmitting  for  his  superior. 

Like  the  head  of  a  large  manufacturing  concern  the 
editor-in-chief  oversees  everything,  but  instead  of  al- 

30 


The  Editor-in-Chief  3 1 

lowing  details  to  take  up  his  time  he  outHnes  a  poHcy 
and  looks  to  his  subordinates  for  results.  Indeed,  one 
of  the  best  tests  of  his  capacity  and  efficiency  is  his 
ability  to  choose  subordinates  who  can  carry  out  his 
plans.  That  he  may  know  how  affairs  in  the  office  are 
moving,  he  every  day  requires  the  editors  under  him  to 
tell  him  about  the  work  in  hand,  and  he  keeps  it  before 
them  that  they  are  not  to  take  chances  when  he  is 
within  reach.  About  anything  that  he  does  not  under- 
stand he  asks  questions  and  he  requires  clear  replies. 
To  make  suggestions  he  is  no  slower  than  the  owner.  In 
some  offices  there  is  a  meeting  every  day,  attended  by  the 
editor-in-chief,  the  managing  editor,  and  the  editorial 
writers,  at  which  matters  of  interest  are  brought  up  for 
discussion,  but  when  the  editor-in-chief  has  a  decided 
opinion,  there  is  little  argument ;  the  other  editors  may 
differ  with  him,  but  if  they  do  they  refrain  from  in- 
sisting, for  they  do  not  forget  that  he  is  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  welfare  of  the  paper  and  that  he 
wants  around  him  only  men  who  can  see  things  as  he 
does. 

When  preparing  articles  dealing  with  the  ^'Peculiar 
Weather  Conditions  Existing,"  or  with  the  "Latest 
Discoveries  in  the  Interior  of  Africa" — when  writing 
anything,  in  short,  w4iich  may  be  read  with  interest, 
but  will  occasion  no  great  amount  of  talk  and  certainly 
no  criticism — the  editorial  writers,  who  are  engaged  by 
the  editor-in-chief,  and  are  known  as  editorial  writers 
rather  than  editors,  choose  their  own  subjects  and 
treat  them  according  to  their  inclinations.  But  edi- 
torials wdiich  take  a  side,  or  advocate  a  certain  course 
of  action  when  the  public  is  divided,  are  usually  in- 
spired. The  editor-in-chief  explains  more  or  less  in 
detail  what  he  desires  said,  and  the  editorial  writers 


32  Making  a  Newspaper 

dress  his  thoughts  as  best  they  can.  Always  the 
editor-in-chief  passes  on  all  editorials  before  they  are 
published,  and  in  some  offices  he  writes  an  editorial 
every  day  himself. 

As  a  rule  the  editor-in-chief  has  attained  his  place 
after  long  service  in  the  newspaper  business;  but  very 
often  the  other  editorial  writers  have  been  trained  in 
different  schools.  Frequently  they  graduate  into  daily 
journalism  after  giving  up  college  professorships,  and 
among  them  are  found  many  former  ministers  and 
lawyers.  Sent  out  to  do  reporting,  many  of  the 
editorial  writers  w^ould  find  themselves  hard  put.  To 
a  great  extent  the  editorial  writers  and  the  men  who 
handle  the  news  work  with  opposite  aims.  The  edi- 
torial writers  sum  up  and  set  forth  conclusions,  while 
the  news  editors  and  reporters  confine  themselves  to 
setting  forth  facts.  The  editorial  writers  can  en- 
croach on  the  preserves  of  the  other  workers  whenever 
they  choose,  but  news  editors  and  reporters  must, 
whatever  else  they  do,  avoid  sermonizing.  Because 
they  are  not  expected  to  air  their  own  opinions,  news 
editors  and  reporters  do  not  often  become  editorial 
writers.  Now  and  then,  however,  one  of  them,  am- 
bitious to  get  out  of  the  turmoil  incident  upon  the 
gathering  and  editing  of  news,  tries  his  hand  at  para- 
graphs, w^hich  he  submits  to  the  chief  editorial  writer, 
and  in  time  develops  into  a  full-fledged  editorial  writer. 
At  first  he  writes  paragraphs  only,  and  it  may  be  years 
before  he  sees  his  articles  displayed  in  the  first  column 
of  the  editorial  page. 

To  preserve  a  proper  balance  between  the  editorial 
end  of  the  paper  and  the  news  end  is  one  of  the  editor- 
in-chief's  most  difficult  tasks.  It  is  very,  very  easy 
for  him  to  allow  one  to  dominate  the  other,  and  he 


The  Editor-in-Chief  33 

need  only  relax  his  vigilance  a  trifle  to  have  his  paper 
begin  to  approach  smugness.  The  editorials  are  all 
well  enough  in  their  way,  but  a  newspaper  is  first  and 
foremost  supposed  to  give  the  news,  and  the  readers 
want  facts,  enough  to  permit  them  to  form  their  own 
opinions.  The  majority  of  readers  skip  the  editorial 
columns  entirely,  and  doing  this  they  will  not  tolerate 
the  attempt  to  force  editorials  upon  them  through  the 
news  columns.  Many  persons,  moreover,  who  do  read 
the  editorials  do  so  in  an  antagonistic  spirit,  flaring 
up  the  minute  they  become  aware  that  the  writer  is 
trying  to  relieve  them  of  the  necessity  of  thinking. 

Many  editorial  writers,  aware  of  the  antagonism 
with  which  the  ever-ready  adviser  is  regarded,  do  not 
openly  attempt  to  mold  opinion.  Instead,  they  reach 
their  end  by  marshaling  their  facts  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  readers  will  be  inclined  to  form  certain  con- 
clusions. The  persons  who  fall  into  traps  thus  pre- 
pared are  doubly  secured,  for  they  tell  themselves, 
reading  an  editorial,  that  the  editorial  writer  or  the 
paper  is  a  sound  reasoner,  as  in  view  of  the  facts  set 
forth  the  only  logical  conclusion  possible  has  been 
reached.  They  overlook  the  possibility  that  some  facts 
may  have  been  concealed,  and  flatter  themselves  that 
the  writer  agrees  with  them,  whereas  he  has  led  them 
to  agree  with  him.  These  editorial  tactics  are  similar 
to  those  employed  by  the  clever  after-dinner  speaker, 
who  tells  a  story  in  such  a  manner  that  his  hearers, 
seeing  the  point  before  he  comes  to  it,  are  put  in  good 
humor,  and  congratulating  themselves  on  their  own 
astuteness  applaud  with  double  incentive.  There  are 
some  editorial  writers,  too,  who  place  great  faith  in 
reiteration.  Day  after  day,  wishing  to  attain  a  certain 
end,  they  say  the  same  thing,  varying  their  method  of 


34  Making  a  Newspaper 

expression  as  often  as  they  can.  After  a  time,  many 
persons  reading  what  they  have  to  say  and  remember- 
ing that  they  have  seen  the  same  thing  said  many  times 
before  but  forgetting  just  where,  come  to  think  that 
what  is  said  must  be  true.  Occasionally,  also,  when 
employing  the  tactics  of  reiteration,  the  editorial 
writer  sticks  to  a  certain  phrase,  as  does  the  advertiser 
who  makes  every  bill-board  and  blank  wall  shout :  "It 
Shines." 

To  be  thoroughly  competent  an  editorial  writer  must 
possess  an  enormous  fund  of  information  and  must 
have  a  ready  pen  which  he  can  move  to  orders,  even 
those  least  fancied.  The  man  who  could  write  con- 
vincingly only  when  convinced  would  soon  find  himself 
in  ill  favor  with  the  editor-in-chief  and  the  owner, 
both  of  whom  assume  that  their  commands  provide  full 
justification  at  all  times.  And,  assigning  topics, 
neither  one  of  them  bothers  himself  about  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  received  so  long  as  the  surface  com- 
placency is  preserved.  To  keep  abreast  of  the  times 
the  editorial  writers  have  to  do  a  deal  of  reading  out- 
side of  the  office  as  well  as  in  it,  and  the  young  reporter 
who  thinks  because  he  sees  them  come  into  the  office 
late  in  the  day,  and  because  they  appear  to  take  things 
easy,  that  they  have  a  sinecure,  is  very  much  mistaken. 
They  are  regular  attendants  at  the  great  public  libraries, 
where  they  study  as  industriously  as  any  schoolboys, 
and  many  of  them  carry  with  them  when  they  report 
for  duty  editorials  prepared  in  their  homes  the  night 
before.  Inside  a  newspaper  office  the  editorial  writers 
have  a  rather  peculiar  standing.  They  are  regarded  as 
having  almost  nothing  in  common  with  the  men  who 
concern  themselves  with  the  news,  and  partly  no  doubt 
because  most  of  them  are  no  longer  young,  they  are 


The  Editor-in-Chief  35 

considered  by  the  reporters  and  the  under-editors  as 
highly  reputable  and  distinguished  gentlemen,  who  are 
at  all  times  entitled  to  great  respect.  In  fact,  the 
editorial  writers,  the  editor-in-chief,  and  the  managing 
editor  are  by  the  other  workers  viewed  as  the  solid 
pillars  of  the  establishment. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  MANAGING  EDITOR 

The  managing  editor  is,  in  the  opinion  of  most  of 
those  under  him,  the  mainspring  of  the  office.  With 
the  editorials  he  has  nothing  to  do,  except  that  he  is 
Hstened  to  with  respect  in  the  counsel  room,  and  he  is 
subject  to  the  will  of  both  the  owner  and  the  editor-in- 
chief,  but  he  is  the  one  upon  whom  it  devolves  to 
superintend  the  collection  of  the  news  and  the  actual 
making  of  the  newspaper.  The  owner  and  the 
editor-in-chief  may  know  how  to  get  the  news  and  how 
to  print  it.  The  managing  editor  must  not  only  know 
how ;  he  must  direct  and  take  part  in  the  work  and  see 
that  it  is  well  done.  If  he  fails,  it  avails  nothing  that 
the  editorials  are  polished  and  the  aim  of  the  paper 
ideal.  A  paper  may  succeed  without  printing  edi- 
torials worth  reading  and  without  having  any  aim 
other  than  the  making  of  money,  but  it  cannot  possibly 
thrive  unless  it  gets  the  news  and  prints  it  in  a  pleasing 
and  attractive  form. 

In  the  absence  of  specific  instructions,  the  man- 
aging editor,  so  far  as  the  news  columns  are  concerned, 
and  these  include  all  except  those  reserved  for  the  edi- 
torials, says  what  shall  and  what  shall  not  be  printed, 
and  constantly  he  advises  the  city  editor,  night  editor, 
telegraph  editor,  and  heads  of  special  departments  to 
the  end  that  what  is  printed  shall  appear  in  a  form 

36 


The  Managing  Editor  37 

and  fashion  pleasing  to  him.  By  the  city  editor  his 
hkes  and  dishkes  are  made  known  to  the  copy  readers 
who  edit  local  news  and  to  the  reporters,  while  by 
the  telegraph  editor  they  are  conveyed  to  the  men 
who  edit  news  which  comes  from  outside  of  the  city, 
and  indirectly  passed  on  to  the  correspondents,  who 
learn  by  observing  the  manner  in  which  the  stories 
they  send  in  are  corrected  or  rewritten.  The  manag- 
ing editor  has  a  great  advantage  in  that  he  is  in  the 
ofifice  at  the  time  the  subordinate  editors,  the  copy 
readers,  and  the  reporters  are  at  work  there,  and  thus 
gets  a  chance  to  pass  judgment  on  articles  prepared 
for  publication  before  they  appear  in  the  paper,  whereas 
the  owner  and  the  editor-in-chief,  customarily,  see  the 
news  stories  only  after  the  paper  has  been  spread 
broadcast.  If  a  story  displeases  them  they  can  com- 
plain, but  they  cannot  undo;  nor  can  they  with  cer- 
tainty guard  against  continual  departures  from  their 
views.  Having  issued  general  orders,  they  are  com- 
pelled, as  they  cannot  foresee  any  better  than  other 
well-informed  men  just  what  the  news  of  the  future 
will  be,  to  trust  to  the  judgment  of  the  managing 
editor. 

The  managing  editor  of  a  morning  paper  reaches 
his  office  early  in  the  afternoon,  usually  at  2  o'clock. 
On  his  desk  he  finds  copies  of  the  evening  papers  al- 
ready issued,  and  having  glanced  over  these  he  calls 
for  the  city  editor  and  the  telegraph  editor,  who  tell 
him  of  the  news  in  sight  and  give  outlines  of  the  work 
they  have  already  accomplished.  After  making  any 
suggestions  that  occur  to  him,  he  pays  a  visit  to  the 
editor-in-chief,  with  whom  he  discusses  the  day's 
prospects.  When  he  returns  to  his  desk  he  attacks  his 
mail.     Not  unlikely,  the  first  communication  he  takes 


38  Making  a  Newspaper 

up  is  from  ''An  Old  Subscriber,"  who  protests  that  the 
paper  is  wrong  on  the  tariff  question.  Probably  an- 
other letter  is  from  ''A  Reader,"  who  says  that  he  is 
glad  that  the  paper  is  right  on  the  tariff  question,  and 
hopes  that  it  will  throw  hotter  shot  into  the  numskull 
opposition.  A  third  may  be  from  a  man  who  says 
that  the  paper  has  made  false  assertions  about  him, 
and  that  he  will  bring  suit  unless  there  is  a  retraction. 
A  woman  trusts  that  the  paper  will,  in  the  future,  print 
less  divorce-court  news,  wdiile  to  settle  a  bet  a  man 
wishes  to  learn  whether  "openers  or  the  whole  hand" 
must  be  shown  after  a  jackpot  has  been  opened.  The 
editor  of  a  paper  published  in  another  city  desires  in- 
formation concerning  the  ability  and  character  of  a  man 
once  employed  by  the  managing  editor,  and  the  editor 
of  another  paper  wishes  to  make  arrangements  for  an 
exchange  of  news  on  the  occasion  of  a  coming  election. 
One  of  the  correspondents  complains  that  there  has 
been  a  mistake  made  in  his  account,  while  another 
correspondent  announces  that  he  is  tired  of  having  the 
articles  he  sends  in  pruned  to  almost  nothing,  and  that 
he  is  willing  to  retire  from  the  paper's  service.  And 
so  it  goes.  Almost  always  there  are  applications  for 
situations  and  a  liberal  supply  of  "poetry." 

The  commendatory  letters  are  laid  aside  for  pub- 
lication if  they  are  worth  it;  those  of  an  opposite 
character  usually  go  into  the  wastebasket.  Communi- 
cations which  do  not  give  the  names  of  the  writers  get 
attention  only  when  they  tell  where  news  may  be  found. 
The  letters  which  ask  questions  are  turned  over  to  dif- 
ferent editors  or  heads  of  departments  in  most  offices, 
but  in  some  they  are  all  intrusted  to  one  man  whose 
fund  of  general  information  and  familiarity  with  books 
of  reference  make  it  easy  for  him  to  give  answers. 


The  Managing  Editor  39 

The  few  letters  which  call  for  replies  from  the  manag- 
ing editor  are  usually  answered  at  once. 

While  he  is  disposing  of  his  mail,  and  it  takes  him 
a  very  short  time  to  do  this,  for  few  of  the  letters  re- 
quire full  or  careful  reading,  the  managing  editor  at 
intervals  receives  from  the  city  and  telegraph  editors 
reports  which  keep  him  informed  concerning  the  news 
that  is  developing,  and,  through  with  his  correspond- 
ence, he  assumes  active  control.  To  everything  big 
and  little  he  gives  attention.  He  plans  with  the  city 
editor  for  the  procuring  of  all  the  important  news  of 
the  city,  sends  instructions  to  the  correspondents,  great 
and  small,  and  to  the  reporters  who  are  away  from 
the  city  on  special  errands,  advises  the  sporting  editor 
and  other  heads  of  departments,  like  the  society  editor, 
helps  assign  the  artists,  passes  on  the  drawings  sub- 
mitted by  the  cartoonists,  and  under  some  circum- 
stances tells  a  few  of  the  reporters  how  he  desires  them 
to  go  about  getting  the  news  which  the  city  editor 
has  asked  them  to  procure,  and  how  he  wishes  them  to 
write  their  articles.  A  good  share  of  his  attention 
the  managing  editor  gives  to  the  telegraph  editor,  w^ho 
submits  to  him  many  of  the  queries  sent  in  by  the 
correspondents,  and  he  takes  time  enough  to  get  the 
gist  of  almost  all  the  news  that  comes  from  foreign 
lands.  Several  times  a  week,  too,  he  summons  the 
Sunday  editor,  both  to  make  suggestions  to  him  and 
to  learn  from  him  what  he  intends  to  print  in  the  issue 
of  his  supplements  on  which  he  is  working.  Occasion- 
ally the  managing  editor  deems  it  necessary  to  reject 
some  of  the  articles  submitted,  but  this  occasions  no 
delay,  for  the  Sunday  editor  is  not  troubled  by  a 
scarcity  of  contributions.  Every  week  he  receives 
three  or  four  times  as  much  material  as  he  can  use, 


40  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  he  always  has  a  well-filled  desk  to  which  he  can 
resort  in  an  emergency. 

And  here  it  might  be  mentioned  that  the  Sunday 
editor,  who  must  not  be  confused  with  the  literary 
editor,  for  the  literary  editor  confines  himself  to  re- 
viewing books  and  magazine  articles  and  preparing 
material  having  to  do  with  authors  and  publishers, 
considers  everything  that  comes  to  him  strictly  on  its 
merits.  He  is  glad  when  he  can  accept  the  articles 
submitted  by  his  friends,  but  he  never  knowingly  allows 
friendship  to  interfere  with  his  editorial  judgment,  for 
he  holds  his  place  only  so  long  as  he  continues  to  fill 
his  supplements  with  material  that  meets  with  the 
approbation  of  his  superiors.  As  a  rule  he  is  best 
pleased  when  contributions  reach  him  through  the 
mails,  although  he  is  always  willing  to  listen  to  the 
person  who,  having  an  article  in  mind,  wishes  to  learn 
what  he  thinks  of  it,  for  this  gives  him  the  chance, 
if  the  article  as  outlined  strikes  his  fancy,  to  tell  just 
how  he  would  like  to  have  it  handled.  In  most  of^ces  a 
large  share  of  the  contributed  stories  printed  in  the  Sun- 
day supplements  are  furnished  by  the  reporters,  but 
this  is  for  no  reason  other  than  that  the  reporters,  be- 
sides being  good  writers  and  prolific  writers,  get  to 
know  the  kind  of  material  that  the  Sunday  editor 
desires.  The  reporters  have  no  guarantee  that  their 
work  will  prove  acceptable,  and  every  week  dozens  of 
their  contributions  are  "returned  with  thanks." 

Not  often  does  a  Sunday  editor  write  an  article  him- 
self. A  story  coming  to  his  mind  he  either  makes  it 
known  to  one  of  his  friends  who  is  numbered  among 
his  steady  contributors,  or  asks  the  managing  editor 
to  lend  him  a  good  reporter  to  collect  the  material 
and  do  the  writing.     Most  of  the  reporters  are  pleased 


The  Managing  Editor  41 

to  get  assignments  of  this  character,  and  in  a  few  of 
the  largest  offices  three  or  four  of  the  best  reporters 
and  artists  spend  about  all  of  their  time  working  for 
the  Sunday  editor.  An  outsider  who  has  a  story 
which  he  desires  to  submit  has  to  remember  only  three 
things.  He  should  write  his  name  and  address  on 
both  the  first  and  last  pages  of  the  manuscript,  after 
making  sure  that  all  are  numbered ;  inclose  stamps  for 
the  article's  return  in  case  it  is  not  accepted;  and  in- 
close it  in  an  envelope  addressed  to  the  Sunday  editor. 

There  are  a  few  Sunday  supplements  which  are 
conducted  on  the  plan  of  a  magazine,  notably  those 
of  the  New  York  Sun,  which  in  every  issue  set  an 
example  for  nearly  all  of  the  cheaper  magazines  of  the 
country;  but  the  average  Sunday  paper  is  a  Sunday 
paper  and  nothing  more,  unlike  anything  else  on  earth. 
It  might  well  be  called  a  literary  dime  museum,  for 
the  editor  presents  not  stories  that  will  simply  amuse 
or  entertain,  but  only  those  which  will  attract  atten- 
tion because  of  their  absurdity;  and  the  pictures,  which 
sometimes  cover  whole  pages,  are,  if  anything,  more 
unusual  than  the  text. 

But  to  return  to  the  managing  editor.  Now  and 
then,  in  the  course  of  the  afternoon,  he  strolls  around 
the  office,  giving  a  word  of  praise  where  it  belongs 
or  stopping  to  call  some  delinquent  to  account;  but 
most  of  his  time  he  spends  poring  over  newspapers 
in  search  of  material  for  new^  stories.  Early  in  the 
evening  he  goes  out  for  his  lunch.  On  his  return  he 
plunges  into  the  real  hard  work,  and  from  then  until 
the  presses  are  set  in  motion  a  dozen  things  demand  his 
attention  all  the  time.  The  telegraph  editor,  for  ex- 
ample, hurries  up  to  his  desk  and  tells  him  that  a  corre- 
spondent from  whom  a  long  story  was  ordered  has 


42  Making  a  Newspaper 

failed  to  forward  it,  and  still  worse,  makes  no  reply  to 
the  telegrams  sent  him ;  the  night  city  editor,  who  takes 
the  place  of  the  city  editor  after  6  o'clock,  next  getting 
his  ear,  informs  him  that  a  reporter  detailed  on  an 
assignment  from  which  great  things  were  expected  has 
returned  empty-handed;  next  he  learns  that  an  office 
boy  has  come  in  carrying  the  rumor  that  a  rival  paper 
has  half  its  reporters  engaged  on  a  big  beat;  a  copy 
reader  who  has  answered  a  telephone  call  tells  him  that 
a  big  fire  has  broken  out  in  a  distant  part  of  the  city, 
and  that  a  reporter  who  chanced  to  be  in  the  neigh- 
borhood says  there  will  be  plenty  of  work  for  an  artist ; 
the  night  city  editor  then  asks  whether  space  can  be 
reserved  for  a  column-long  account  of  an  accident, 
word  of  which  has  just  been  received;  word  then 
comes  from  the  foreman  of  the  pressroom  that  a  press 
is  out  of  order,  and  that  if  he  is  to  get  the  first  edition 
printed  on  time  he  must  have  the  forms  earlier  than 
usual ;  then  comes  a  telegram  from  a  country  corre- 
spondent, who,  having  none  of  the  instincts  of  a 
reporter,  asks  whether  the  paper  would  like  a  story 
about  a  bank  cashier  who  has  disappeared,  taking  with 
him  $100,000  of  the  bank's  money.  The  correspondent 
will  be  discharged  for  his  poor  judgment  before  many 
days  have  passed,  but  for  the  present  he  must  be  borne 
with,  and  he  gets  nothing  more  than  a  request  to  send 
a  full  account  of  the  theft  and  flight  as  speedily  as 
possible. 

.  The  assumption  is  that  the  managing  editor  reads 
all  articles  before  they  are  printed,  but  frequently  he 
delegates  the  reading  to  an  assistant,  who,  going  over 
everything,  lays  aside  for  him  important  stories,  those 
poorly  written,  incomplete,  or  too  wordy,  those  which 
read  as  if  they  might  be  libelous,  and  those  which  are 


The  Managing  Editor  43 

not  beyond  doubt  in  accordance  with  the  poHcy  of  the 
paper.  When  he  has  someone  to  do  the  sifting  for 
him  the  managing  editor  contents  himself  with  reading 
only  the  headings  of  the  bulk  of  the  articles.  But  the 
ones  selected  for  his  examination  he  reads  with  especial 
care.  Both  the  managing  editor  and  his  assistant  do 
their  reading  when  the  articles  appear  in  proof  form; 
the  proofs  come  to  them  by  the  handful,  and  the  dele- 
gated reader,  particularly,  has  to  work  with  great 
rapidity  to  avoid  falling  behind.  In  the  course  of  a 
day  or  a  night  one  of  these  readers  will  scan  fifty 
columns  of  print,  correcting,  as  he  goes,  bad  English 
and  poor  constructions,  misspelled  names,  and,  as  far 
as  he  can,  errors  of  fact.  Typographical  errors  he 
does  not  mark,  as  they  receive  the  attention  of  the 
proof-readers  employed  in  the  mechanical  department. 
When  the  managing  editor  finds  a  story  which  he 
thinks  is  worth  more  space  than  it  occupies,  he  goes 
to  the  man  who  sent  it  to  the  printers  and  asks  him 
to  have  it  amplified.  If  it  is  the  work  of  a  reporter 
who  is  within  reach,  it  is  returned  to  him  to  be  re- 
w^ritten,  and  having  no  more  facts,  he  is,  if  there  is 
time,  directed  to  get  more  information,  frequently  hav- 
ing his  attention  called  to  some  phase  of  the  incident 
reported  which  had  escaped  him.  A  story  wdiich  the 
managing  editor  thinks  is  too  long  he  turns  over  to  a 
copy  reader  to  be  pruned,  and  across  the  face  of  an 
article  which  he  does  not  wish  to  appear  in  the  paper 
he  writes  the  word  ''kill."  A  proof  thus  marked  is 
sent  at  once  to  the  room  where  the  typesetting  is  done, 
and  the  foreman  there  destroys  the  article.  While 
going  over  his  proofs  the  managing  editor  occasionally 
rewrites  a  heading  or  changes  a  few  words  to  improve 
an   article,   but   finding   it   necessary   to  make   many 


44  Making  a  Newspaper 

changes  he  cautions  the  copy  readers.  This  doing  no 
good,  he  engages,  as  quickly  as  opportunity  permits, 
better  or  more  careful  workers. 

While  he  is  reading,  the  managing  editor  watches 
particularly  for  libelous  articles,  and  any  story  which 
arouses  his  suspicions  he  investigates,  if  possible  ques- 
tioning the  man  who  wrote  it.  Should  he  not  be  satis- 
fied after  his  investigation  he  marks  the  article  for 
destruction.  Libelous  stories  which  do  get  into  the 
paper  make  trouble  for  everyone  who  had  anything 
to  with  them,  reporters,  copy  readers,  and  editors ;  and 
aware  of  this,  rascals  sometimes  keep  out  of  the  public 
eye  by  looking  mysterious  when  reporters  call  on  them 
to  inquire  about  their  wrong-doings,  and  saying  that 
while  they  do  not  feel  called  upon  to  explain  offhand 
they  will  b^  pleased  to  do  so  in  court  if  anything  is 
printed  about  them.  There  is  no  paper  which  is  in  a 
hurry  to  attack  a  man,  who,  while  refusing  to  answer 
questions,  in  effect  says :  "This  affair  is  not  all  on  the 
surface.  If  you  print  anything  derogatory  to  my 
character,  I  shall  sue  for  libel."  Within  recent  years 
newspapers  have  found  that  juries  are  inclined  to  deal 
more  harshly  with  them  than  they  once  were,  and  none 
of  them  likes  to  run  unnecessary  risk.  A  verdict  for 
$50,000  damages  against  a  paper  exercises  a  great  in- 
fluence over  both  it  and  its  competitors,  and  verdicts 
for  this  amount  are  not  unknown. 

With  the  aid  of  the  night  editor,  the  managing 
editor  while  he  is  reading  proofs,  receiving  reports 
from  the  other  editors,  and  issuing  instructions,  keeps 
track  of  the  material  sent  to  the  printers,  news  as  well 
as  advertisements,  so  that  he  is  able  an  hour  or  so 
before  midnight  to  decide  on  the  size  of  the  paper,  that 
is,  of  how  many  pages  the  issue  shall  consist.     In 


The  Managing  Editor  45 

small  cities  the  papers  come  out  day  after  day  with  the 
same  number  of  pages,  but  in  a  large  city  the  number 
varies.  If  either  news  or  advertising  is  scarce  the 
paper  may  one  day  consist  of  only  eight  or  ten  pages, 
while  under  different  conditions  the  succeeding  issue 
may  include  from  twelve  to  sixteen ;  and  to  some  extent, 
the  size  of  the  paper,  strange  as  it  may  sound,  depends 
on  the  weather.  If  a  rain  or  snow  storm  is  raging  a 
small  paper  is  the  result,  for  then  the  managers  of  the 
big  department  stores  cut  down  their  advertisements, 
knowing  that  however  tempting  their  bargains,  there 
are  many  women  who  will  wait  for  less  disagreeable 
weather  to  do  their  shopping.  An  extremely  hot  or 
an  extremely  cold  day  also  leads  to  a  curtailment  of 
advertising  for  the  same  reason.  The  size  of  a  news- 
paper, too,  varies  with  the  season  of  the  year.  In 
midsummer,  when  many  persons  are  out  of  the  city, 
there  is  a  scarcity  of  both  news  and  advertising,  and 
there  is  a  decrease  in  the  amount  of  advertising,  except 
that  of  dry  goods  and  department  stores,  immediately 
after  New  Year's, 

The  rush  in  a  morning  newspaper  ofifice  reaches  the 
climax  a  little  before  i  o'clock,  w^hen  with  the  last  copy 
sent  to  the  printers  the  managing  editor  and  the  night 
city  editor  forsake  the  editorial  rooms  for  the  com- 
posing room  and  devote  themselves  to  arranging  the 
articles  in  the  pages.  First  the  editorial  page  is  got 
ready.  Then  those  devoted  to  news  are  taken  up. 
Always  in  a  morning  paper  ofifice  the  first  page  is 
''made  up"  last,  thus  permitting  very  late  news  to  get 
a  place  where  it  will  not  be  overlooked.  In  an  evening 
paper  office  the  financial  page  is  arranged  last,  as  the 
quotations  from  the  exchanges  are  received  up  until 
the  latest  possible  moment;  and  because  of  this  this 


46  Making  a  Newspaper 

page  often  contains  important  news  which  arrived  too 
late  to  get  a  place  on  the  front  page.  Routine  news 
and  that  of  little  moment  a  managing  editor,  of  course, 
has  put  on  the  inside  pages.  The  most  valuable  news 
almost  always  gets  the  last  column  on  the  front 
page,  which  is  the  place  of  honor,  partly  because  the 
newsdealers,  arranging  the  various  papers  on  their 
stands,  place  them  in  such  a  manner  that  the  last  column 
of  the  paper  topping  each  pile  is  prominently  displayed, 
and  partly  because  it  permits  a  long  article  to  run  over 
on  the  second  page  without  a  break.  While  arranging 
the  pages  the  managing  editor  pays  attention  to  sym- 
metry as  well  as  the  worth  of  the  various  articles,  and 
when  he  can  he  avoids  placing  headings  that  read 
much  alike  close  together. 

Most  managing  editors  content  themselves  with  de- 
ciding where  the  important  articles  shall  be  placed, 
but  a  few  choose  to  direct  the  entire  ''make-up"  of 
every  page,  and  occasionally  they  are  assisted  in  this 
work  by  the  paper's  owner.  There  is  one  newspaper 
owner  in  New  York  who  almost  every  night  visits  his 
office  to  assist  in  this  part  of  the  making  of  his  new^s- 
paper,  and  on  these  occasions  the  proofs  are  pasted 
on  sheets  w^hich  are  laid  out  on  the  floor,  that  he  may 
get  an  idea  of  how  the  paper  will  look  when  it  comes 
from  the  presses.  If  a  story  told  along  Park  Row 
is  to  be  believed,  he  made  it  a  practice  to  walk  back 
and  forth  over  the  sheets  wdiile  making  his  inspection, 
until  one  night  a  libelous  article  escaped  both  him  and 
the  managing  editor  because  he  kept  his  foot  on  it 
while  they  were  making  their  examination,  and,  ap- 
pearing in  the  paper,  resulted  in  a  damage  suit  which 
cost  him  several  thousand  dollars.  Since  then,  it  is 
said,  he  reads  the  sheets  one  at  a  time  on  his  hands 


The  Managing  Editor  47 

and  knees  and  sits  on  a  stool  to  get  his  bird's-eye 
view. 

An  office  boy  is  waiting  in  the  pressroom  when  the 
presses  begin  to  move,  and  the  first  half  dozen  papers 
printed  he  seizes  and  hurries  to  the  editorial  rooms. 
There  the  paper  is  subjected  to  a  close  inspection,  the 
headings  and  the  date  lines  at  the  tops  of  the  pages 
being  scrutinized  with  exceptional  care.  Over  a  minor 
mistake  there  are  sighs,  but  the  discovery  of  a  grievous 
error  may  induce  the  managing  editor  to  stop  the 
presses  to  have  it  corrected.  When  this  occurs  the 
man  who  blundered  is  in  for  a  reprimand  or  a  fine, 
and  not  infrequently  for  suspension  or  dismissal. 

The  managmg  editor  of  an  afternoon  paper  is  not 
kept  in  suspense  long  before  getting  a  chance  to  learn 
what  his  opponents  have  done.  Afternoon  papers  are 
rushed  from  the  presses  into  the  hands  of  the  newsboys 
without  delay,  and  each  office  has  in  its  service  a  news- 
boy who  carries  to  it  three  or  four  copies  of  all  the 
rival  papers  as  fast  as  they  are  issued,  while  to  make 
sure  that  no  editions  are  missed  the  editors  send  office 
boys  into  the  street  at  short  intervals  to  learn  what  the 
newsboys  there  have  in  stock.  But  it  is  not  so  easy 
for  the  editor  of  a  morning  paper  to  learn  what  his 
rivals  have  accomplished.  While  the  first  edition  of  a 
morning  newspaper  starts  to  come  from  the  presses  soon 
after  i  o'clock,  it  is  not  until  3.30  o'clock,  by  which 
time  the  last  edition  has  been  printed,  or  is  well  under 
way,  that  the  local  newsdealers  and  the  newsboys  are 
supplied.  The  first  edition,  as  has  been  explained,  is 
intended  for  out-of-town  circulation  only,  and  in  every 
office  strong  efforts  are  made  to  prevent  first  edi- 
tion papers  from  getting  into  the  other  newspaper 
offices  on  the  morning  they  are  printed.     Those  papers 


48  Making  a  Newspaper 

which  are  to  go  by  mail  are  locked  in  sacks  by  trusted 
employees  and  hurried  to  the  Post  Office,  and  those 
which  are  to  go  by  express  are  securely  tied  in 
bundles  before  they  are  taken  out  of  the  pressroom 
and  piled  into  the  wagons  which  carry  them  to  the 
ferries  and  railroad  stations.  The  drivers  of  the 
wagons  are  told  at  the  time  they  are  hired  that  they 
must  under  no  circumstances  open  these  bundles,  and  if 
it  is  found  that  one  has  disregarded  his  instructions 
he  is  immediately  discharged.  The  only  loose  first 
edition  papers  supposed  to  be  taken  from  the  press- 
room are  the  few  carried  to  the  editorial  rooms  by  the 
office  boy,  and  these  are  guarded  as  if  they  were  bank 
bills  of  high  denomination.  Every  editor  who  receives 
one  is  held  responsible  for  its  safety,  and  they  observe 
a  hard  and  fast  rule  that  none  of  them  shall  allow  his 
copy  to  pass  out  of  his  possession.  Even  the  reporters 
are  barred  from  getting  papers  before  they  are  dis- 
tributed to  the  newsdealers,  and  it  is  not  considered 
good  taste  for  a  reporter  to  pay  any  attention  to  a 
first  edition  which  he  may  see  lying  on  an  editor's 
desk. 

It  is  a  pleasant  fiction  that  the  care  taken  serves  its 
purpose.  The  fiction  has  it  that  in  every  office  the 
managing  editor  and  his  assistants,  their  own  first 
edition  on  the  press,  sit  watching  the  hands  on  the 
clock,  wondering  what  the  other  papers  contain,  and 
waiting  until  3.30  o'clock  to  find  out.  In  reality  dif- 
ferent conditions  prevail.  Somehow,  somewhere, 
there  are  leaks,  and  half  an  hour  after  a  managing 
editor  gets  a  copy  of  his  first  edition,  he  is  found  de- 
voting his  attention  to  the  first  editions  of  all  the  other 
local  papers,  which  in  some  mysterious  manner  have 
found  their  way  to  his  desk.     Where  they  come  from 


The  Managing  Editor  49 

no  one  seems  to  know.  They  simply  appear,  and  the 
subject  of  their  appearance  is  one  not  referred  to  either 
by  those  who  know  that  it  is  none  of  their  concern — 
that  is,  everyone  in  the  office  except  the  managing 
editor — or  by  the  managing  editor  who  is  directly 
interested. 

Possessed  of  the  rival  publications  the  managing 
editor  goes  over  them  to  see  whether  they  contain  any- 
thing important  not  in  his  own  paper.  Some  editors, 
finding  that  another  paper  contains  a  big  item  of  news 
which  they  missed,  have  the  story  rewritten  and  with- 
out further  ado  print  it  in  their  next  edition.  But 
this  is  a  dangerous  proceeding.  The  story  may  not  be 
true;  even  if  based  on  truth,  the  facts  may  be  distorted, 
and,  most  to  be  feared,  the  story  may  not  only  be  un- 
true, but  may  have  been  printed  in  the  hope  that  some 
other  editor  would  appropriate  it.  Several  years  ago 
a  certain  paper  in  a  Southern  city,  becoming  convinced 
that  a  rival  was  rewriting  and  printing  the  dispatches 
which  it  was  procuring  at  great  expense,  set  a  trap 
for  the  suspect  by  printing  under  glaring  headlines 
an  account  of  a  mythical  shooting  affray  in  which  a 
man  of  the  name  of  DUARF  and  one  of  the  name  of 
EKAF  were  killed.  The  suspected  paper  rewrote  and 
printed  the  story,  but  its  editors  doubtless  regretted 
their  action  when  the  paper  which  had  set  the  trap  de- 
nounced them  as  pilferers  and  proved  its  case  by  show- 
ing that  the  shooting  affray  had  never  occurred,  and 
pointing  out  that  the  names  DUARF  and  EKAF  were 
convertible  into  FRAUD  and  FAKE. 

Lack  of  time  prevents  the  managing  editor  of  a 
morning  paper  from  inquiring  into  stories  telegraphed 
from  distant  points  which  he  may  find  in  the  rival 
papers,  so  these  are  allowed  to  pass  unless  they  are  of 


50  Making  a  Newspaper 

such  moment  that  he  feels  himself  justified  in  running 
the  risk  of  involving  his  paper  and  himself  in  diffi- 
culties. When  the  story  which  it  is  thought  desir- 
able to  appropriate  is  a  local  one,  a  reporter  is  hurried 
out  to  find  someone  who  will  be  in  a  position  to  say 
whether  it  is  true  or  false,  and  generally  the  reporter 
can  get  the  desired  information  and  telephone  it  to  the 
office  before  the  presses  are  started  for  the  last  edition. 
The  managing  editor  of  an  evening  paper,  with  his 
numerous  editions,  defeated  in  any  except  the  last  one, 
of  course,  finds  it  easy  to  repair  the  damage  before  the 
end  of  the  day. 

After  he  has  examined  his  own  first  edition  and  such 
others  as  have  come  to  him,  the  managing  editor  of  a 
morning  paper  starts  for  home,  leaving  to  his  assistant, 
the  night  editor,  or  a  copy  reader  the  task  of  making  up 
the  second  edition  and  searching  it  for  errors  when  it 
comes  from  the  presses.  And  here  may  be  told  a  story 
about  one  New  York  editor  who  congratulated  himself 
that  while  an  elaborate  system  put  copies  of  the  rival 
publications  into  his  hands  almost  as  soon  as  their 
presses  started,  his  own  pressroom  was  so  carefully 
guarded  that  it  was  impossible  for  copies  of  his  paper 
to  go  astray.  One  morning,  going  home,  he  got  on 
a  street  car,  unfolded  a  surreptitiously  procured  paper, 
and  was  beginning  to  read  it  when,  glancing  up,  he  saw 
sitting  across  from  him  the  managing  editor  of  this 
publication.  The  discovery  disconcerted  him,  but 
astonishment  made  him  sit  up  straight  when  he  found 
that  one  of  his  own  first  editions  was  in  the  hands  of 
his  rival.  When  their  eyes  met  the  men  bowed,  but 
congratulations  were  not  extended. 

The  early  editions  of  a  morning  paper  intended  for 
out-of-town    distribution    exclusively    contain    much 


The  Managing  Editor  51 

special  matter  that  never  reaches  the  eyes  of  the  city 
population.  There  may  be  in  them  three  or  four 
columns  of  "Long  Island  News,"  a  column  filled  with 
matters  of  interest  to  residents  of  Staten  Island  only, 
several  columns  of  "Jersey  Gossip,"  and  so  on.  In 
the  last  edition  all  this  material  makes  w^ay  for  news 
that  came  in  late,  and  stories  of  minor  local  happen- 
ings. Occasionally  a  managing  editor  who  has  come 
into  possession  of  a  big  piece  of  news  which  he  has 
reason  to  believe  escaped  the  other  papers,  purposely 
holds  it  for  this  last  edition,  and  not  content  with  this 
goes  into  the  pressroom  himself  when  the  edition  is 
placed  on  the  presses,  has  the  doors  locked  and  keeps 
them  locked  until  his  watch  tells  him  that  another  mo- 
ment's delay  will  tie  up  the  circulation  department  and 
cause  disappointment  for  a  lot  of  the  paper's  readers. 
Because  of  this  there  is  always  anxiety  in  Newspaper 
Row  when  it  becomes  known  that  any  one  of  the 
papers  has  failed  to  appear  at  its  accustomed 
time. 

For  the  managing  editor  of  an  evening  paper  there 
is  no  gradual  working  up  to  top  speed.  In  the  office 
over  which  he  presides  haste  reigns  from  morning  until 
night,  and  instead  of  one  climax  there  are  as  many  as 
there  are  editions  issued.  When  he  appears  ready  for 
work  at  8.30  or  9  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  city  and 
telegraph  editors  and  half  the  heads  of  departments  are 
waiting  for  him,  and  all  through  the  day  they  call  on 
him  at  frequent  intervals  for  aid  or  counsel.  When 
they  are  not  after  him  he  is  after  them.  Procrastina- 
tion is  impossible.  Decisions  must  be  made  on  the 
instant,  for  the  rule  is  ''Get  the  news  at  all  hazards." 
In  the  office  of  an  evening  paper  which  prints  many 
editions  the  motto  is  "Get  the  news,  right  if  you  can," 


52  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  the  managing  editor  of  one  of  these  papers,  when 
important  news  is  concerned,  will  print  a  story  upside 
down,  or  with  the  end  where  the  beginning  ought  to 
be,  rather  than  let  a  rival  beat  him  by  two  min-' 
utes. 

Every  day  the  managing  editor,  whether  he  be  on  a 
morning  or  an  evening  publication,  somehow  finds  time 
to  compare  his  own  paper  in  detail  with  the  rival  pub' 
lications,  and  finding  anything  to  his  paper's  discredit^ 
he  starts  an  investigation  to  determine  how  this  hap- 
pened. When  the  perusal  of  the  other  papers  show? 
that  one  of  them  is  printing  especially  attractive  stories, 
steps  are  taken  to  ascertain  who  is  writing  them. 
Should  it  be  learned  that  the  writer  is  willing  to  make 
a  change,  the  information  may  reach  him  that  he  will 
not  be  turned  away  if  he  applies  for  employment  in  a 
certain  office,  and  if  he  is  not  anxious  to  move  he  may 
be  told  outright  by  some  friend,  acting  as  a  go-between, 
that  another  paper  is  willing  to  give  him  more  pay  than 
he  is  receiving.  The  stories  sent  in  by  the  paper's 
correspondents  are  also  depended  upon  to  point  out 
possible  additions  to  the  office  staff,  the  correspond- 
ent who  furnishes  a  series  of  stories  which  the 
other  papers  miss,  always  coming  in  for  considera- 
tion. 

•  Quick  to  find  poor  work  on  his  own  paper  the  man- 
aging editor  is  just  as  ready,  and  more  pleased,  to  dis- 
cover that  which  calls  for  commendation.  The  re- 
porter who  procures  a  good  ''beat"  is  sure  of  a  word 
of  praise,  and  employed  on  some  papers  he  gets  the 
additional  reward  of  a  cash  prize.  Occasionally  the 
prize  reaches  $ioo,  and  $20  premiums  are  often  be- 
stowed. Continuing  this  scrutiny  without  cessation 
the  managing  editor  comes  to  know  the  worth  of  every 


The  Managing  Editor  53 

one  of  his  men.  The  work  performed  by  some  leads 
him  to  mark  them  for  dismissal,  that  of  others  tells  him 
not  to  expect  wonders  of  them,  while  that  of  still  others 
tells  him  where  he  can  look  with  profit  when  vacancies 
in  the  higher  ranks  occur. 


CHAPTER  V 
UNCOVERING  THE  NEWS 

How  a  newspaper  obtains  the  news  of  a  large  city 
is  a  great  puzzle  to  most  city  residents.  Only  at  long 
intervals  do  they  themselves  see  anything  which  would 
be  worth  while  telling  about  in  print,  and  however  ex- 
tended their  list  of  acquaintances,  they  often  go  for 
weeks  and  months  without  having  an  incident  that 
would  be  of  interest  to  the  general  public  brought  to 
their  attention  by  those  directly  concerned.  Their 
neighbors'  affairs  are  unknown  to  them,  and  their  own 
they  endeavor  to  keep  secret.  How  then,  they  ask, 
does  a  newspaper  get  to  know  everything  it  does; 
when  a  murder  is  committed,  when  there  is  any  one  of 
a  thousand  happenings?  "How  did  you  learn  of 
this  ?"  is  a  question  that  reporters  hear  every  day. 

There  are  some  persons,  as  is  evident  from  the  ques- 
tions they  ask  reporters,  who  imagine  that  the  news- 
gatherers  wander  around  aimlessly  waiting  for  some- 
thing to  turn  up;  and  now  and  then  newspaper  workers 
discover  individuals  who  have  heard  and  believe  that 
the  papers  employ  reporters  to  patrol  the  streets,  and 
keep  other  reporters  stationed  at  busy  corners,  to  watch 
for  incidents  worth  telling  about  in  print.  Indeed, 
the  general  opinion  seems  to  be  that  the  newspapers 
trust  largely  to  luck  to  keep  them  informed  concern- 
ing the  city's  activity.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  ques- 
tion of  luck  rarely  occurs  to  an  editor.     There  are  no 

54 


Uncovering  the  News  55 

reporters  who  stroll  haphazard  about  the  streets  and 
none  who  has  nothing  more  to  do  than  stand  idle  at 
a  street  corner  waiting  for  something  to  happen.  Sel- 
dom does  a  reporter  by  mere  chance  come  directly  upon 
important  news;  and  when  this  does  occur  the  prob- 
abilities are  that  the  news  will  come  to  the  attention  of 
his  office  in  a  short  time,  even  if  he  pays  no  attention 
to  it. 

The  uncovering  or  discovering  of  news  is  largely 
done  by  persons  who  have  no  direct  connection  with  the 
newspapers.  There  are  a  great  many  who  knowingly 
act  as  news  collectors,  but  there  are  more  who  are 
unwitting  reporters,  and  among  the  latter  are  many  of 
those  who  wonder  most  how  the  papers  get  their  in- 
formation. Ministers,  for  example,  do  not  think  of 
themselves  as  reporters,  but  the  newspapers  view  them 
all  as  valuable  allies.  Every  time  he  performs  a  mar- 
riage ceremony  a  minister  is  by  law  required  to  make 
a  report  to  the  Board  of  Health,  giving  the  name,  age, 
residence,  and  previous  condition,  w^hether  unmarried, 
wadowed,  or  divorced,  of  each  person  he  marries.  His 
reports  are  kept  from  the  general  public,  but  some  of 
them  in  roundabout  w^ays  get  to  the  newspapers. 

There  are  few  physicians  who  w'ill  wallingly  aid  the 
neW'Spapers  by  giving  information  about  their  patients, 
but  physicians  as  a  class  are  highly  esteemed  as  fur- 
nishers of  news  by  both  editors  and  reporters.  A 
physician  must  make  a  report  every  time  he  is  called 
upon  to  attend  a  person  suffering  wnth  a  contagious 
disease;  whenever  one  of  his  patients  dies ;  when  a  case 
of  murder,  suicide,  or  attempted  suicide  demands  his 
attention,  and  when  he  assists  at  a  birth.  He  can  be 
as  secretive  as  he  chooses,  but  he  cannot  keep  his  re- 
ports aw^ay  from  the  new^spapers.     So  far  as  results 


56  Making  a  Newspaper 

are  concerned  he  might  as  well  carry  his  information 
direct  to  the  newspaper  offices. 

An  undertaker  gives  information  to  the  newspapers 
as  regularly  as  he  is  employed  to  prepare  a  body  for 
burial.  Before  he  can  touch  the  body  he  must  carry 
to  the  Board  of  Health  a  physician's  certificate  giving 
the  cause  of  death.  If  the  certificate  is  pronounced 
satisfactory  by  the  authorities,  there  is  issued  to  him  a 
burial  permit  which  he  must  show  at  the  railroad 
station  or  ferry-house  through  which  the  body  goes  on 
its  way  to  the  cemetery  and  again  at  the  cemetery 
entrance.  An  undertaker  detected  in  an  attempt  to 
smuggle  a  body  out  of  the  city,  or  to  bury  one  without 
permission  from  the  proper  authorities,  would  surely 
pay  a  heavy  penalty.  Every  report  the  undertaker 
makes  reaches  the  newspapers. 

The  every-day  citizen  becomes  a  reporter,  among 
other  times,  when  he  tells  the  police  that  he  has  been 
robbed  or  assaulted,  asks  for  the  arrest  of  anyone, 
makes  complaint  that  a  noisy  neighbor  keeps  him 
awake  at  nights,  applies  for  permission  to  improve  his 
property,  and  when  he  notifies  his  business  associates 
that  he  is  insolvent.  And  the  every-day  citizens  who 
act  as  reporters  have  for  companions  as  newsgatherers 
a  host  of  others  who  might  be  described  as  every-night 
citizens,  among  them  burglars,  sneak  thieves,  and  pick- 
pockets. These,  of  whom  more  will  be  said,  act  as  col- 
lectors of  information  knowingly  and  with  a  purpose, 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  give  a  thought  to  the 
newspapers  while  doing  it. 

Because  they  have  so  many  newsgatherers  who  serve 
them  without  pay,  the  newspapers  do  not  find  it  neces- 
sary to  keep  a  direct  watch  on  all  parts  of  the  city. 
Nor  do  they  try  to  watch  the  population  as  individuals ; 


Uncovering  the  News  57 

as  Jong  as  a  man  is  merged  in  the  crowd  the  news- 
papers give  him  no  attention.  Instead  of  watching 
the  city  and  its  people  the  newspapers  devote  most 
of  their  attention  to  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
places  where  it  is  made  known  when  the  life  of  anyone 
in  the  city  departs  from  ordinary  paths,  or  when  events 
worth  telling  about  occur.  For  example,  John  Smith, 
let  it  be  supposed,  becomes  a  broker.  For  ten  years 
he  pursues  the  even  tenor  of  his  way  and  except  for 
his  customers  and  his  friends  no  one  gives  him  a 
thought.  To  the  newspapers  he  is  as  if  he  were  not. 
But  in  the  eleventh  year  he  suffers  heavy  losses  and,  at 
last,  his  resources  all  gone,  summons  his  lawyer  and 
arranges  for  the  making  of  an  assignment.  The  lawyer 
posts  off  to  the  County  Clerk's  office,  and  a  clerk  there 
makes  the  necessary  entries  in  the  office  docket.  Here- 
in step  the  newspapers.  While  the  clerk  is  writing 
Smith's  business  obituary  a  reporter  glances  over  his 
shoulder,  and  a  few  minutes  later  the  newspapers  know 
Smith's  troubles  and  are  as  well  informed  concerning 
his  business  status  as  they  would  be  had  they  kept  a 
reporter  at  his  door  every  day  for  over  ten  years.  Had 
Smith  dropped  dead  instead  of  merely  making  an 
assignment  his  name  would  have  reached  the  news- 
papers by  way  of  the  Coroners'  office  instead  of  the 
County  Clerk's  office,  and  in  fact,  while  Smith  did 
not  know  it,  the  newspapers  were  prepared  and  ready 
for  him  no  matter  what  he  did.  They  even  had  repre- 
sentatives waiting  for  him  at  the  Morgue.  He  was 
safe  only  when  he  w^alked  the  straight  and  narrow 
path  and  kept  quiet. 

For  the  most  part  the  places  kept  under  observation 
by  the  newspapers  are  those  where  office-holders  serve 
the  public.     There  is  no  one  who  is  not  looked  upon  as 


58  Making  a  Newspaper 

a  possible  helper,  but  the  employees  of  the  city,  county, 
state,  and  nation  are  the  papers'  dearest  friends.  With- 
out these  unsalaried  reporters  the  newspapers  in  the 
largest  cities  could  not  get  the  local  news  they  do  with- 
out employing  several  hundred  regular  reporters  each, 
whereas  the  one  that  does  maintain  as  many  as  a  third 
of  a  hundred  in  the  city  where  it  is  published  is  an 
exception.  After  setting  a  guard  on  most  of  the  public 
offices  and  office-holders,  the  newspapers  detail  a  few 
men  to  keep  under  observation  those  people  who  are 
striving  to  become  office-holders,  or  endeavoring  to  get 
friends  into  office,  and  this  done  set  a  goodly  number 
to  keep  an  eye  on  the  semi-public  centers  of  activity, 
such  as  railroad  stations,  hotels,  steamship  piers,  and 
exchanges.  It  is  only  for  that  news  which  escapes 
all  these  watchers  that  the  newspapers  trust  to  luck. 
The  reporters  who  do  the  watching  are  called  ''depart- 
ment men,"  and  each  one  of  them  guards  the  same  place 
day  after  day.  There  are  in  New  York  reporters  who 
have  not  changed  their  station  in  fifteen  years. 

In  all  large  cities  the  newspapers  keep  watch  on 
about  the  same  class  of  places.  A  list  made  out  by  a 
New  York  editor  would  differ  little  from  one  made  out 
in  the  office  of  a  Philadelphia  newspaper,  and  either 
list  might  be  employed  by  a  Chicago  city  editor  after 
the  making  of  a  half-dozen  changes.  Some  of  the 
places  kept  under  observation  in  New  York  are  so 
prolific  of  news  that  the  watch  on  them  is  never  inter- 
rupted for  a  minute  while  they  are  open  for  the  trans- 
action of  business.  Others  are  visited  by  the  reporters 
at  short  intervals,  one  man  looking  after  several  of 
them,  while  those  of  a  third  class  are  visited  every 
few  hours,  once  a  day,  once  a  week,  or  at  greater 
intervals. 


Uncovering  the  News  59 

The  places  in  New  York  which  are  watched  con- 
stantly are  as  follows : 

Police  Headquarters. 

Police  Courts. 

Coroners'  Office. 

Supreme  Courts,  New  York  County. 

New  York  Stock  Exchange. 

City  Hall,  including  the  Mayor's  Office,  Aldermanic 
Chamber,  City  Clerk's  Office,  and  Office  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  Manhattan  Borough. 

County  Clerk's  office. 

To  Police  Headquarters  and  the  police  courts,  be- 
cause of  their  close  relation  to  the  newspapers,  separate 
chapters  will  be  devoted. 

At  the  Coroners'  office,  which  remains  open  day  and 
night,  the  newspapers  learn  of  murders,  fatal  acci- 
dents, sudden  deaths,  suicides  and  attempted  suicides ; 
assaults  and  accidents  which  promise  to  lead  to  deaths ; 
and  cases  of  malpractice  which  threaten  to  result 
fatally.  These  things  are  reported  to  the  coroners  by 
the  police,  physicians,  and  undertakers  principally,  al- 
though the  coroners  may  interest  themselves  of  their 
own  volition  in  any  case  that  they  think  demands  an 
investigation.  The  reports  which  reach  the  Coroners' 
office  are  at  once  telephoned  to  the  newspapers  by  re- 
porters especially  detailed  for  this  work.  These  re- 
porters also  keep  the  newspapers  informed  of  the  pro- 
ceedings when  inquests  are  held. 

The  kind  of  news  found  in  the  Supreme  Court 
which  has  to  do  with  civil  cases  only,  needs  no  ex- 
planation. There  are  over  a  dozen  courtrooms  in  one 
building,  and  every  day  on  which  court  is  held  finds 
most  of  them  busy.  The  reporters  determine  the  im- 
portance of  the  cases  that  are  to  come  up  so  far  as  they 


6o  Making  a  Newspaper 

are  able  by  inspecting  the  daily  calendar,  but  because 
the  brief  announcements  do  not  always  enlighten  them 
as  to  the  news  value  of  a  coming  proceeding,  they 
question  lawyers  they  encounter  in  the  courthouse  cor- 
ridors, and  visit  the  different  courtrooms  at  short  inter- 
vals. Finding  a  case  which  is  worth  writing  about  a 
reporter  takes  notes  and  later  goes  to  a  room  which 
is  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  newspaper  workers,  to 
write  his  article.  Divorce  cases  furnish  material  for  a 
good  share  of  the  court  writing  done,  especially  on 
Wednesdays,  when  one  judge  devotes  his  entire  atten- 
tion to  undefended  suits.  Frequently  he  disposes  of 
over  a  score  of  these  cases  in  a  day,  and  listening  to 
the  proceedings,  the  reporters  can  take  notes  which 
will  allow  them  to  write  to  their  hearts'  content. 

Newspaper  reporters  are  not  allowed  on  the  floor  of 
the  Stock  Exchange  where  the  buying  and  selling  take 
place,  but  they  keep  themselves  informed  concerning 
the  activities  there  by  watching  the  tickers  or  tape- 
printing  machines  which  record  the  transactions. 
Each  paper  has  a  financial  editor,  under  whose  direc- 
tion two  or  three  reporters  work.  This  editor,  who 
has  an  office  somewhere  in  the  financial  district,  fol- 
lows the  transactions  recorded  on  the  stock  indicator 
very  closely,  and  is  thus  informed  of  the  range  of 
prices.  Each  of  his  reporters  collects  certain  news  for 
him,  and  with  their  contributions  he  is  enabled  to  pre- 
pare the  article  which  deals  with  the  daily  market. 
One  of  his  aids  looks  after  the  news  of  the  Produce 
Exchange,  the  Cotton  Exchange,  and  the  minor  ex- 
changes, and  one  of  them  every  day  manages  to  visit 
a  dozen  or  so  brokers'  offices,  the  United  States  Sub- 
treasury,  and  the  Clearing  Flouse  in  search  of  items  of 
interest  while  going  about  on  special  errands  assigned 


Uncovering  the  News  6i 

to  him  by  the  editor.  Failures  of  banks  and  brokerage 
houses  are  usually  investigated  by  reporters  sent  from 
the  newspaper  offices  in  response  to  calls  for  assistance 
from  the  financial  editors. 

In  the  City  Hall  is  found  a  good  share  of  the  news 
having  to  do  with  the  city  -  ernment.  For  the  re- 
porting of  special  meetings  men  are  usually  sent  from 
the  newspaper  offices,  which  leaves  the  regular  detailed 
reporters  free  to  keep  constant  watch  on  all  parts  of 
the  City  Hall. 

From  the  County  Clerk's  office  comes  news  of  busi- 
ness failures,  the  filing  of  judgments,  recording  of 
mortgages,  and  a  great  lot  of  matter  of  a  similar 
nature. 

Those  places  which  the  newspapers  watch  carefully, 
but  not  continually,  are  as  follows : 

City  Courts  (Minor  civil  cases). 

Court  of  General  Sessions  (Criminal  cases). 

Court  of  Special  Sessions  (Minor  criminal  cases). 

District  Attorney's  Office. 

Doors  of  Grand  Jury  rooms  when  the  Grand  Jury  is 
in  session  (For  indictments  and  presentments). 

Federal  Courts. 

Post  Office. 

United  States  Commissioner's  Offices,  and  Offices  of 
the  United  States  Secret  Service  officers. 

United  States  Marshal's  Office. 

United  States  District  Attorney's  Office. 

Ship  News,  where  incoming  and  outgoing  vessels  are 
reported. 

Barge  Office,  where  immigrants  land. 

Surrogate's  Office,  where  wills  are  filed  and  testi- 
mony concerning  wills  in  litigation  is  heard. 

Political  Headquarters  during  campaigns. 


62  Making  a  Newspaper 

The  following  are  visited  by  the  reporters  several 
times,  or  only  once  a  day: 

Police  Stations. 

Municipal  Courts. 

Board  of  Health  Headquarters. 

Fire  Department  Headquarters. 

Park  Department  Headquarters. 

Building  Department   Headquarters. 

Tombs  Prison. 

County  Jail. 

United  States  Sub-treasury. 

Office  of  Collector  of  the  Port. 

United  States  Appraiser's  Office. 

Public  Hospitals. 

Leading  Hotels. 

The  Morgue. 

County  Sheriff's  Office. 

City  Comptroller's  Office. 

City  Treasurer's  Office. 

Offices  of  the  Tax  Collector  and  Tax  Assessors. 

At  irregular  intervals  detailed  reporters  call  on  other 
local  United  States  officers,  among  them  the  cjuarantine 
officials,  and  at  the  headquarters  of  all  city  and  county 
officers  not  in  the  foregoing  lists,  and  every  day  the 
men  who  report  real  estate  sales  visit  the  leading  real 
estate  dealers  and  the  auction  rooms  they  patronize. 
The  dramatic  critics  make  daily  rounds  of  the  prin- 
cipal theaters  and  theatrical  agencies.  Meetings  of  the 
Rapid  Transit  Commission,  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, and  the  Board  of  Education  are  always  at- 
tended, as  are  those  of  religious,  political,  and  labor 
societies,  when  news  is  promised.  The  Appellate 
Division  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  kept  under  observa- 
tion every  Friday,  the  day  on  which  decisions  are  an- 


Uncovering  the  News  63 

nounced,  and  on  Sundays  the  sermons  of  well-known 
clergymen  are  reported.  The  sporting-  editor  and  his 
assistant  keep  in  touch  with  the  owners  of  race  horses, 
pugilists  and  their  managers,  and  others  directly  in- 
terested in  sporting  events,  and  reporters  are  always  on 
hand  to  get  the  news  connected  with  the  arrival  and 
departure  of  big  ocean  liners.  From  time  to  time,  too, 
the  city  editors  enlarge  their  lists  of  places  which  are 
to  be  kept  under  close  observation.  After  a  heavy 
snowfall  the  office  of  the  Street  Cleaning  Commissioner 
goes  on  the  preferred  lists,  as  does  the  office  of  the 
Health  Commissioner  during  an  epidemic,  or  after  an 
outbreak  of  a  rare  or  particularly  contagious  disease. 
When  a  prominent  man  is  dangerously  ill,  his  house 
is  guarded  night  and  day.  The  lists,  too,  are  tempo- 
rarily augmented  when  work  in  which  the  public  is 
especially  interested  is  under  way,  as  when  a  new 
bridge  or  street  railway  is  in  course  of  construction, 
when  it  behooves  the  newspapers  to  keep  in  contact 
with  both  the  contractors  and  the  men  who  work  for 
them. 

Believing  that  all  their  watchers  are  alert,  the  news- 
papers feel  fairly  safe  so  far  as  news  of  fires,  accidents, 
murders,  arrests,  business  failures,  deaths,  court  trials, 
and  similar  occurrences  is  concerned.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  place  w^here  they  can  watch  for  "Society 
News,"  scandal  not  disclosed  in  court,  and  gossip. 
What  is  known  as  "Society  News"  is  collected  by  re- 
porters, usually  w^omen,  who  depend  upon  acquaint- 
ances for  some  information,  and  gather  the  rest  by  call- 
ing on  persons  who  are  "in  society"  and  are  proud  of  it. 
The  persons  who  figure  in  "Society  News"  are  gen- 
erally glad  to  see  their  names,  their  pictures,  and  ac- 
counts of  their  doings  in  the  newspapers;  much  more 


64  Making  a  Newspaper 

so  than  they  would  openly  confess.  They  remember 
the  reporters  when  they  issue  or  accept  invitations,  and, 
directly  or  through  persons  whose  actions  they  control, 
convey  to  them  intelligence  over  which,  when  it  appears 
in  print,  they  often  pretend  to  be  angry.  The  society 
editors  are  not  troubled  by  a  dearth  of  material,  but  can 
pick  from  many  offerings.  The  voluminous  mail  of 
the  society  editor  is  a  time-worn  newspaper  office  joke. 

For  the  collection  of  scandal  and  gossip  each  paper 
dealing  in  these  things  has  its  own  system.  Servants, 
for  a  consideration,  make  some  of  the  scandals  known. 
Jealousies  lead  to  the  disclosures  of  some,  and  in- 
telligence of  others  is  conveyed  to  the  newspapers  by 
acquaintances  of  the  persons  concerned,  who  need  the 
money  they  receive  for  their  information.  So  it  is  with 
gossip.  Sometimes  a  person  who  comes  into  posses- 
sion of  a  choice  morsel  goes  from  one  office  to  an- 
other to  find  out  where  he  can  make  the  best  sale, 
taking  care,  of  course,  to  give  only  a  faint  outline  of  his 
story  until  he  gets  a  satisfactory  offer.  There  are  serv- 
ants who  add  regularly  to  their  incomes  by  revealing 
the  secrets  of  the  families  wdiich  employ  them,  and 
there  are  more  men  and  women  than  most  persons 
suppose,  who,  ambitious  to  shine  above  their  means, 
are  glad  to  make  a  few  dollars  now  and  then  by  con- 
veying to  the  papers  that  are  willing  to  deal  with  them 
any  intelligence  of  which  they  gain  possession. 

As  it  is  widely  known  that  the  editors  are  willing 
to  pay  good  prices  for  news  the  newspaper  offices  are 
visited  by  a  continual  stream  of  persons  who  are 
anxious  to  exchanr^'e  information  for  cash.  When 
there  is  a  collision  between  ferry-boats  in  one  of  the 
rivers,  two  or  three  passengers  at  least  are  sure  to 
start  for  the  newspaper  offices  the  moment  they  set 


Uncovering  the  News  65 

foot  on  land,  and  frequently  a  passenger  who  has 
crossed  the  ocean  on  a  ship  having  on  board  some 
famous  man  goes  direct  from  the  pier  to  offer  an  inter- 
view with  him  and  to  tell  about  the  incidents  of  the 
trip.  A  street  car  accident  occurring  in  the  business 
section  of  the  city  is  pretty  sure  to  lead  an  enterprising 
newsboy  or  bootblack  to  become  a  reporter  for  the 
time,  and  often  the  city  editor  will  hear  of  the  same 
accident  from  four  or  five  persons.  All  the  volunteer 
reporters  are  well  treated  by  the  city  editors,  and  they 
are  well  paid  for  their  contributions.  For  any  news 
that  is  worth  printing  the  minimum  payment  is  one 
dollar,  and  for  long  stories  payment  is  made  at  space 
rates.  The  man  who  furnishes  a  good  story  and 
promises  not  to  carry  it  to  other  offices  is  sometimes 
paid  four  or  five  times  the  regular  rates,  and  occa- 
sionally, to  encourage  him,  a  city  editor  will  pay  an  out- 
sider for  news  which  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
will  later  be  sent  in  by  one  of  the  regular  watchers. 
When  the  editor  does  this  he  makes  a  friend  of  the  vol- 
unteer reporter,  and  at  the  same  time  provides  a  broad- 
side for  the  dilatory  worker.  The  volunteer  reporters 
are  well  worth  cultivating.  They  serve  as  a  check  on 
the  paid  watchers,  w^hile  often  they  provide  informa- 
tion which  would  never  be  uncovered  in  the  regular 
channels.  Moreover,  anxious  to  make  sales,  the 
volunteers  hurry,  and  their  information  is  generally 
"extra  fresh."  When,  a  few  years  ago,  there  was  a 
bad  railroad  wreck  in  a  tunnel  leading  to  a  station 
in  New  York  in  which  a  number  of  persons  were  killed, 
one  of  the  papers,  informed  of  the  accident  over  the 
telephone  by  a  volunteer  reporter,  was  able  to  get 
several  experienced  newsgatherers  on  the  scene  five 
minutes  before  the  representatives  of  its  rivals  ap- 


66  Making  a  Newspaper 

peared.  When  the  late  comers  arrived  the  police  were 
driving  the  crowd  back,  and  it  was  not  until  order  had 
been  partly  restored  that  they  were  able  to  get  through 
the  throng.  The  result  was  that  the  paper  which  the 
volunteer  reporter  informed  of  the  accident  scored  a 
substantial  beat. 

But  valuable  as  are  the  volunteer  reporters,  who 
might  be  included  in  the  ''luck  factor"  in  news  getting, 
the  paid  watchers  who  engage  in  newspaper  work  for 
a  living  are  the  men  to  whom  the  city  editors  look 
day  in  and  day  out  for  their  information  concerning 
what  is  going  on  in  the  city.  To  gain  an  idea  of  the 
service  performed  by  the  paid  watchers,  one  need  only 
read  a  newspaper  while  keeping  the  places  they  guard 
in  mind.  A  large  majority  of  the  local  stories  printed, 
when  read  carefully,  show  that  they  have  originated 
or  been  uncovered  in  one  or  another  of  them. 

The  detailed  reporter  who  learns  that  something 
has  occurred  which  needs  to  be  reported  for  his  paper 
is  not  always,  however,  the  man  who  collects  the 
details  and  prepares  the  article  reciting  them.  Often 
the  department  man  merely  informs  the  city  editor  that 
a  certain  thing  has  happened,  and  having  done  this  re- 
turns to  his  task  of  watching.  Most  of  the  important 
news  stories  are  reported  and  written  by  a  second 
group  of  reporters  who  are  known  as  "general  work- 
ers." These  reporters,  instead  of  having  stations  to 
guard,  report  for  duty  in  the  editorial  rooms  and  re- 
main there  occupying  themselves  as  they  choose,  until 
they  are  summoned  by  the  city  editor  and  told  to  in- 
vestigate certain  occurrences.  How  the  city  editor 
gained  the  information  he  already  has  does  not  concern 
them,  and  it  is  not  customary  for  him  to  enlighten  them 
on  the  subject.     The  city  editor,  for  example,  contents 


Uncovering  the  News  67 

himself  with  saying:  ''Will  you  look  after  the  fire  at 
Broadway  and  80th  Street?"  and  the  reporter  he  ad- 
dresses posts  off  without  delay. 

There  was  a  time  not  so  many  years  ago  when  each 
newspaper  maintained  a  large  staff  of  detailed  watch- 
ers, but  now  in  all  large  cities  most  of  the  watching  is 
done  by  a  corps  of  reporters  employed  by  a  co-operative 
concern  of  which  almost  all  of  the  papers  are  members. 
There  are  in  New  York  only  two  papers,  one  morning 
and  one  evening  edition,  both  issued  from  the  same 
establishment,  w^hich,  not  belonging  to  the  local  co- 
operative association,  have  their  own  watchers,  and 
collect  all  their  news  unaided.  The  other  papers  have 
their  own  men  stationed  at  only  a  few  important  places. 
The  New  York  co-operative  association  maintains  about 
sixty  reporters,  who  are  directed  by  a  city  editor  as  are 
the  reporters  employed  on  a  newspaper.  This  city  edi- 
tor aims  to  collect  all  the  news  of  the  city,  and  does  not 
take  account  of  the  efforts  of  the  newspapers.  The 
articles  his  reporters  write  are  copied  in  multiple,  after 
which  a  copy  is  sent  to  each  member  of  the  association. 
The  newspaper  city  editors  use  these  articles  as  they 
are  received,  have  them  rewritten,  or  turn  them  over 
to  reporters,  to  be  embodied  in  stories  written  in  the 
offices.  When  the  association's  men  merely  give  their 
city  editor  the  outlines  of  happenings,  he  has  bulletins 
written  and  issued,  and  when  he  receives  exceptional 
news  he  employs  the  telephone  to  inform  the  news- 
papers. 

The  uncovering  of  the  news  is  such  an  important 
part  of  newspaper  work  in  a  large  city  that  a  detailed 
explanation  of  some  of  the  methods  employed  will  not 
be  amiss.  Indeed,  the  explanation  is  necessary  if  one 
is  to  understand  how  the  editors  and  reporters  do  their 


68  Making  a  Newspaper 

work.  The  methods  described  will  be  those  used  in 
New  York,  but  as  the  newspapers  in  all  large  Ameri- 
can cities  pursue  about  the  same  plan  in  getting  their 
news,  they  may  be  applied  to  any  large  city  in  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  POLICE  AS  NEWSGATHERERS 

The  most  efficient  unsalaried  reporters  pressed  into 
service  by  the  newspapers  are  the  poHce.  In  fact,  in 
the  leading*  cities,  deprived  of  their  assistance,  the  edi- 
tors would  have  to  get  along  without  a  large  part  of 
the  information  they  now  present,  and  more  than  this, 
they  would  have  to  change  their  methods  and  adopt  a 
good  many  of  those  employed  in  small  towns,  where 
a  reporter's  worth  is  measured  as  much  by  his  ability 
to  cover  ground  as  by  anything  else.  By  the  public 
the  police  are  ordinarily  thought  of  as  guardians  of  the 
city  who  confine  themselves  to  protecting  law-abiding 
citizens  against  thieves,  preserving  the  peace,  and  reg- 
ulating traffic.  By  the  newspapers,  which  know  more 
about  them,  they  are  regarded  first  of  all  as  news- 
gatherers.  That  the  residents  of  a  city  are  unaw^are 
of  this  is  not  strange,  however,  for  they  possess  no 
knowledge  of  a  score  of  duties  wdiich  the  police  per- 
form every  day  before  their  very  eyes.  How  many 
persons  in  New  York  know  that  the  police  are  required 
to  inspect  steam  boilers  and  issue  engineers'  licenses? 
Probably  not  one  in  five  hundred.  It  is  likely  that 
no  greater  proportion  know  that  the  police  supervise 
the  operations  of  pawnbrokers,  junk-shop  keepers, 
junk  boatmen,  cartmen,  dealers  in  second-hand  mer- 
chandise, and  auctioneers.  Most  persons  know  that 
they  issue  licenses  permitting  the  carrying  of  firearms, 

69 


70  Making  a  Newspaper 

but  the  great  majorit}'  are  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
parades  cannot  pass  through  the  streets  without  their 
permission.  In  the  entire  city  of  New  York  there  are 
over  8500  poHcemen.  In  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan 
and  the  Bronx  alone,  which  are  commonly  considered 
as  making  up  the  city,  there  are  about  5000,  and  an 
effort  will  in  this  chapter  be  made  to  show  the  im- 
portant relation  they  bear  to  the  newspapers  of  the 
city. 

At  the  head  of  the  New  York  Police  Department  is 
a  commissioner  appointed  by  the  Mayor.  His  immedi- 
ate assistants  are  three  deputy  commissioners,  and  close 
to  them  is  a  chief  inspector,  the  ranking  officer  of 
the  uniformed  force.  Then  come  the  borough  inspect- 
ors. Next  are  the  ordinary  inspectors,  of  whom  there 
are  six  for  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx, 
each  having  charge  of  a  certain  section.  The  commis- 
sioner and  two  of  his  deputies  have  their  offices  in  the 
Police  Headquarters  building,  where  are  also  quartered 
the  department  clerical  force,  the  inspection  and  license 
bureaus,  and  the  chief  of  detectives  and  his  men.  At- 
tached to  the  office  of  the  chief  of  detectives  is  the 
collection  of  photographs  and  measurements  making 
up  what  is  known  as  the  Rogues'  Gallery.  One  deputy 
commissioner  has  his  office  in  the  Brooklyn  Police 
Headquarters,  and  it  might  here  be  explained  that  the 
New  York  papers  in  ordinary  affairs  consider  Brook- 
lyn as  a  separate  city;  for  its  news  each  one  of  them 
depends  upon  two  or  three  department  reporters. 
Ranking  below  the  police  inspectors  are  the  captains, 
one  for  each  precinct.  A  precinct  commonly  includes 
an  area  about  a  half  mile  square,  but  the  size  varies 
with  the  density  of  population.  In  each  of  these 
divisions  is  a  station  house,  where  the  captain  and  his 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  71 

subordinates  have  their  quarters.  The  front  part  of 
the  station  house's  main  floor  is  fitted  up  as  an  office, 
and  connected  with  it  is  the  captain's  private  room.  In 
the  rear  are  a  lounging  room  and  a  small  prison,  and 
upstairs  are  dormitories.  Next  to  the  captains  in  rank 
are  the  sergeants  and  below  them  are  the  roundsmen; 
ordinarily  there  are  four  sergeants  and  four  rounds- 
men for  each  precinct.  Last,  if  doorkeepers,  patrol- 
wagon  drivers,  and  matrons  are  excluded,  are  the 
patrolmen,  the  privates  of  the  police  organization. 

The  patrolmen  of  a  precinct  are  divided  into 
platoons,  one  of  which  is  always  out  in  the  streets,  and, 
continually,  part  of  another  platoon  is  asleep  or  rest- 
ing in  the  station  house;  this  second  contingent,  con- 
stituting what  is  known  as  the  reserve  force  or  the 
reserves,  is  called  upon  in  emergencies.  The  section 
of  a  precinct  which  a  patrolman  guards  is  in  police 
parlance  his  post  or  his  beat,  and  he  is  supposed  to 
watch  every  part  of  it  carefully.  To  see  that  the  patrol- 
men keep  aw^ake  and  do  not  shirk  their  work  is  the  duty 
of  the  roundsmen.  The  sergeants  watch  both  the 
roundsmen  and  the  patrolmen  and  the  captain  w^atches 
them  all,  spending  most  of  his  time  in  the  streets.  The 
inspectors,  observing  results,  are  quick  to  make  com- 
plaint when  laxity  appears,  for  continual  disorder  in 
their  territory  may  lead  to  their  undoing.  Accused 
by  a  superior  officer  or  by  anyone  else  of  having  neg- 
lected his  duty  or  violated  the  department  rules,  a 
policeman  is  placed  on  trial  before  one  of  the  deputy 
commissioners,  and  if  found  guilty,  is  sentenced  to  work 
a  certain  number  of  days  without  pay,  or  is  dismissed 
from  the  force.  Not  as  often,  though,  as  they  would 
like,  do  the  officers  at  the  head  of  the  department  suc- 
ceed in  ridding  it  of  undesirable  members,  for  most 


72  Making  a  Newspaper 

of  the  men  they  dismiss  are  reinstated  by  the  courts. 
A  commissioner  at  one  time  head  of  the  department 
was  not  far  wide  of  the  mark  when  he  said  that  it  was 
easier  to  hang  a  man  than  it  w'as  to  deprive  a  poHceman 
of  his  place. 

At  the  time  he  is  made  a  member  of  the  force,  and 
a  man  must  pass  a  civil  service  examination  before 
he  can  be  appointed,  a  policeman  is  required  to  attend 
a  school  of  instruction  where  he  is  taught  how  he  is  to 
perform  his  duties,  and  during  this  period  the  sergeant 
who  acts  as  teacher  impresses  on  him  with  particular 
emphasis  that  the  one  thing  he  must  never  forget  is 
to  inform  his  station  house  without  delay  whenever 
an  accident,  a  fire,  a  robbery,  a  fight,  or  any  event  of  a 
similar  character  occurs  in  the  territory  he  guards. 
For  a  policeman's  good  he  had  better  do  anything  else 
than  be  negligent  or  dilatory  in  making  these  reports. 
If  found  idling  when  he  is  supposed  to  be  wide  awake 
and  watchful,  he  may  escape  with  only  a  nominal 
fine;  but  when  it  is  proved  that  he  has  withheld  in- 
formation that  should  have  been  made  known  to  his 
superiors  he  gets  a  sentence  that  he  remembers. 

With  the  sergeants  it  rests  to  see  that  the  patrolmen 
and  roundsmen  make  intelligent  and  complete  reports, 
and  no  editors  dealing  with  newsgatherers  can  be 
harder  taskmasters.  In  the  absence  of  the  captain 
from  the  station  house  one  of  the  sergeants  is  in  com- 
mand, and  no  matter  where  the  captain  is,  a  sergeant 
is  always  found  in  the  main  room  of  the  station  house 
sitting  behind  a  desk  on  which  is  spread  out  a  big 
book  known  as  the  blotter.  This  book  to  the  station 
house  bears  the  relation  that  the  log-book  does  to  a 
ship.  In  it  the  sergeant  records  arrests,  reports  made 
to  him,  orders  either  given  or  received,  inquiries  of 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  73 

all  kinds,  the  incoming  and  outgoing  of  patrolmen  and 
officers,  and  complaints  of  robberies  and  assaults.  In 
brief,  in  the  blotter  the  sergeant  sets  down  a  running 
account  of  the  precinct's  activities,  and  time  does  not 
hang  heavily  on  his  hands,  for  reports  and  orders  come 
to  him  thick  and  fast.  But  the  precinct  history  is  not 
merely  written  and  kept  locked  in  the  blotter.  From 
all  the  intelligence  that  comes  to  him  the  sergeant  culls 
the  important  items,  and  using  the  telephone  hanging 
close  to  his  desk,  transmits  them  as  fast  as  they  are 
received  to  Police  Headquarters.  The  unimportant 
items  he  forwards,  too,  but  they  travel  slower,  being 
embodied  in  written  reports  which  are  carried  to  head- 
quarters every  morning.  There  are  some  things  which, 
coming  to  his  notice,  a  patrolman  at  once  makes  known 
to  his  sergeant  over  the  telephone.  In  a  good  many  in- 
stances he  goes  to  the  station  house  and  makes  a  report 
in  person,  and  under  some  circumstances  he  telephones 
a  preliminary  report  and  later  hands  in  a  second  one 
set  down  on  paper. 

Suppose  a  policeman  discovers  a  fire.  If  not  fore- 
stalled, he  immediately  runs  to  the  nearest  signal  box 
to  send  in  the  alarm.  An  alarm  sent  out  from  any 
thickly  populated  section  in  New  York  brings  an  engine 
to  the  box  in  not  more  than  five  minutes,  and  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  city  the  first  company  must  appear 
within  three  minutes  if  there  is  to  be  no  complaint  of 
tardiness  made  by  the  police,  between  whom  and  the 
firemen  there  i^  great  rivalry.  As  soon  as  the  firemen 
are  on  hand  and  there  is  no  pressing  work  for  him  to  do 
the  patrolman  telephones  to  the  station  house,  telling 
whether  the  reserves  are  needed.  Then  he  ascertains 
how  the  fire  started,  who  owns  the  building,  who  occu- 
pies it,  the  probable  loss  and  the  amount  of  insurance, 


74  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  names  of  any  injured  and  the  extent  of  their  in- 
juries, and  after  asking  a  comrade  to  keep  an  eye  on 
his  post  during  his  absence  hastens  to  his  station  house, 
where  he  makes  his  report.  This  done,  he  returns  to 
his  post.  The  sergeant,  before  the  entry  is  made  in 
the  blotter,  telephones  the  information  received  to 
Police  Headquarters,  with  which  place,  however,  he  has 
already  had  a  conversation  relating  to  the  fire,  as  will 
be  explained. 

When  the  machinery  of  a  fire  alarm  box  is  set  in 
motion  the  notification  that  there  is  a  fire  is  transmitted 
to  the  Fire  Department  Headquarters,  which  is  in  East 
Sixty-Seventh  Street  near  Third  Avenue.  From  there 
it  is  sent  to  certain  fire  companies,  Police  Headquarters, 
branch  offices  of  the  newspapers  near  Police  Head- 
quarters, the  offices  of  several  insurance  adjusters,  and 
to  a  few  city  officers  and  employees.  Each  box  has  a 
different  number,  and  every  number  sounded  calls  out 
certain  fire  companies. 

Here  it  is  worth  pointing  out  that,  contrary  to  the 
general  belief,  no  section  of  the  city  is  ever  left 
unprotected  because  a  big  fire  happens  to  be  burn- 
ing. One  reason  for  this  is  that  there  are  quartered 
in  many  houses  what  are  known  as  double  companies, 
two  complete  sets  of  apparatus  and  two  forces  of  men. 
When  one  company  is  called  out  the  second  simply 
makes  ready  to  effect  a  speedy  exit,  although  it  does 
not  respond  to  calls  for  assistance  from  the  first  fire, 
but  waits  for  what  might  be  called  a  fire  of  its  own. 
And  expecting  a  call  the  firemen  get  out  in  almost  no 
time  at  all.  Even  under  ordinary  circumstances  in 
daylight  the  engine  of  a  crack  company  will,  on  the 
receipt  of  a  signal  like  122 — the  men  are  so  speedy 
that  they  occasionally  have  to  wait  for  the  completion 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  75 

of  the  signal  when  high  numbers  are  sounding  on  the 
gong — roll  over  the  bridge  that  spans  the  curb  in 
from  six  to  eight  seconds,  and  now  and  then  five  sec- 
onds finds  the  engine  of  the  prize  company  out  on  the 
street.  The  second  reason  why  no  part  of  the  city  is 
left  unguarded  when  a  fire  has  made  necessary  the 
presence  of  many  pieces  of  apparatus  lies  in  the  fact 
that  with  the  sounding  of  second  alarms  and  the  out- 
break of  fresh  fires  begins  a  shifting  about  of  com- 
panies not  yet  summoned.  From  all  the  territory  ad- 
jacent to  that  depleted  come  apparatus  and  men  to 
occupy  empty  houses.  Every  fresh  alarm  calls  for 
more  changes  until  it  sometimes  happens  that  a  com- 
pany finds  itself  occupying,  temporarily,  cjuarters  four 
or  five  miles  from  the  house  to  which  it  is  accustomed. 
Of  course,  the  shifting  that  comes  when  thirty  or  forty 
pieces  of  apparatus  are  engaged  in  fighting  one  fire 
makes  each  of  the  idle  companies  responsible  for  the 
safety  of  an  enormous  section  of  the  city,  but  still  no 
place  is  left  without  protection. 

As  soon  as  a  fire  alarm  sounds  at  Police  Head- 
quarters, the  officer  in  charge  of  the  ''telegraph 
bureau,"  which  got  its  name  before  the  introduction 
of  the  telephone,  knowing,  from  the  number  sent  in, 
the  location  of  the  box,  calls  on  a  private  telephone 
wire  the  station  house  of  the  precinct  in  which  it  is 
found  and  informs  the  sergeant.  Police  Headquar- 
ters, having  told  the  sergeant  of  the  fire,  expects  him 
to  furnish  particulars  in  a  hurry,  and  because  of  this  a 
sergeant  is  always  glad  when  the  patrolman  on  whose 
beat  the  fire  was  discovered  appears  with  his  report, 
and  permits  him  to  supply  facts  and  figures.  Continu- 
ally the  sergeants  remind  their  men  of  the  necessity 
of  making  prompt  reports  of  fires,  and  the  one  who  is 


76  Making  a  Newspaper 

not  speedy  enough  to  suit  his  sergeant  pays  dearly.  If 
a  patrolman  leaves  a  fire  before  it  is  out,  or  before 
getting  all  the  information  desired,  he  returns  to  the 
scene  and  later  augments  his  first  report. 

Should  he  be  informed  of  an  accident  on  his  post,  in 
which  someone  has  been  injured  seriously  enough  to 
need  the  attention  of  a  surgeon,  a  patrolman  goes  to  a 
telephone  and,  calling  Police  Headquarters,  gives  his 
name  and  his  precinct,  tells  where  he  is,  describes  the 
accident  briefly,  and  asks  that  an  ambulance  be  sent. 
The  hospital  nearest  to  the  policeman  is  informed  of  the 
call  by  headquarters,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances 
the  ambulance  reaches  the  injured  person  within  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes.  In  an  emergency  the  policeman 
sometimes  telephones  direct  to  the  hospital  nearest 
him,  but  this  is  not  customary.  The  injured  person 
having  been  taken  away,  the  policeman  loses  no  time 
in  making  his  report  to  the  station  house. 

If  a  body  is  found  in  one  of  the  rivers  or  the  bay, 
the  policeman  to  whose  attention  it  is  called  gets  it 
ashore;  or  unable  to  do  this,  secures  it  so  that  it  will 
not  be  carried  away  by  the  current.  Using  a  nearby 
telephone  he  then  gives  the  news  to  Police  Head- 
quarters, and  through  headquarters  is  sometimes  put 
in  communication  with  his  station  house,  in  which  case 
he  makes  a  preliminary  report  to  his  sergeant.  From 
Police  Headquarters  an  order  is  sent  to  the  Morgue  for 
the  ''dead  wagon"  to  remove  the  body.  The  Coroners' 
office  is  also  notified,  and  a  physician  attached  to  that 
ofiice  is  detailed  to  view  the  body  and,  if  it  is  deemed 
advisable,  perform  an  autopsy  to  ascertain  the  cause 
of  death.  The  policeman  after  talking  with  head- 
quarters gets  a  description  of  the  body,  searches  it, 
learns  who  discovered  it,  and  gathers  as  much  informa- 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  'j'j 

tion  bearing  on  tlie  case  as  he  can.  He  then  goes  to 
the  station  house  and  the  report  he  makes  there  is 
repeated  to  headquarters. 

When  a  prisoner  is  landed  in  a  station  house  his 
captor  makes  a  report  to  the  sergeant,  even  before  the 
prisoner  is  placed  behind  the  bars,  and  in  cases  where 
someone  has  been  injured  the  news  is  immediately 
telephoned  to  headquarters.  Ordinary  arrests  are 
made  known  to  headquarters  in  the  written  reports. 

As  travels  the  news  of  fires,  accidents,  the  finding  of 
bodies,  and  the  taking  of  prisoners  so  goes  that  relat- 
ing to  hundreds  of  occurrences.  Before  the  officers  at 
Police  Headquarters  there  is  constantly  displayed  an 
ever  changing  panorama.  Not  much  of  it  is  pleasing, 
for  through  it  all  runs  a  touch  of  crime,  misery,  and 
destruction,  but  it  is  never  commonplace.  Always 
headquarters  has  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  how  the  town  is 
moving,  and  while  the  commissioner  and  the  other 
officers  may  not  be  kept  so  well  informed  about  the 
territory  over  which  their  authority  extends,  and  the 
people  in  it,  as  are  the  high  police  officers  of  some 
great  continental  cities,  they  do  learn  a  great  deal  more 
than  is  generally  supposed.  Their  official  newsgath- 
erers are  numbered  by  the  thousand,  and  their  unpaid 
spies,  both  men  and  women,  are  multitudinous.  If  a 
notorious  criminal  reaches  the  city  his  arrival  is  soon 
announced  to  the  chief  of  detectives,  and  thereafter 
his  movements  are  closely  followed  and  his  goings  and 
comings  are  looked  into  with  care.  Should  the  wall 
of  a  building  show  signs  of  weakness  and  threaten  to 
fall,  the  news  gets  to  headquarters  almost  as  hurriedly 
as  does  that  of  an  accident,  and  a  guard  is  set  to  warn 
away  those  who  might  run  into  danger.  If  a  pedes- 
trian is  held  up  in  the  streets  and  robbed  of  his  valu- 


yS  Making  a  Newspaper 

ables,  or  a  building  is  despoiled,  the  detectives,  within 
a  few  hours  at  the  outside,  are  spreading  their  nets. 
Should  a  paving  stone  break  and  thus  prepare  a  pit- 
fall for  the  unwary,  some  officer  at  headquarters  hears 
of  it  before  long  and  starts  the  machinery  that  will 
repair  the  break.  When  a  dead  cat  disfigures  a  street 
the  news  quickly  travels  to  headquarters  and  soon  a 
scavenger  makes  his  appearance.  To  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  the  police  nothing  is  too  great  and  few  things 
are  too  small. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  explanation  it  can  be 
seen  that  Police  Headquarters  is  the  great  news  center 
of  the  city.  And  when  it  is  further  explained  that 
part  of  the  information  which  reaches  there,  includ- 
ing all  that  having  to  do  with  fires,  accidents,  suicides, 
and  murders,  and  part  of  that  having  to  do  with  bur- 
glaries, brawls,  and  arrests,  is  disclosed  to  the  news- 
papers, one  can  understand  how  the  newspapers  find 
out  many  of  the  things  they  tell  about,  and  why  they 
are  not  put  to  the  expense  of  employing  reporters  to 
patrol  the  streets.  The  press  bureau  at  Police  Head- 
quarters, where  the  news  which  there  is  no  occasion 
for  keeping  secret  is  made  public,  never  closes,  and  night 
and  day,  year  in  and  year  out,  the  newspapers,  through 
the  eyes  of  their  reporters,  watch  its  bulletins.  Never 
is  the  watch  half-hearted,  either,  for  any  moment  may 
see  displayed  a  bulletin  which  will  lead  to  whole  pages 
of  newspaper  writing.  That  they  may  be  inspected  at 
a  glance  the  bulletins  are  written  on  slips  of  paper 
and  hung  in  a  window,  as  watches  left  for  repairs  are 
hung  in  a  jeweler's  window,  and  in  the  language  of 
the  reporters  the  bulletins  or  reports  are  always  ''slips." 
Incidentally,  hanging  behind  glass,  the  slips  do  not 
disappear  before  all  the  reporters  have  had  a  chance  to 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  79 

look  at  them.  For  the  convenience  of  their  news- 
gatherers  the  newspapers  maintain  branch  offices  just 
across  the  street  from  PoHce  Headquarters,  and  by 
telephones  these  offices  are  connected  with  the  editorial 
rooms.  Using  the  telephone  the  reporters  communi- 
cate to  their  offices  the  bulletins  they  deem  worth  it  as 
fast  as  they  are  displayed.  In  addition  to  a  tele- 
phone, each  branch  office  is  equipped  with  a  fire  alarm 
signal  on  which  is  sounded  every  alarm  for  Manhattan 
and  Bronx  boroughs,  and  always  at  least  one  reporter 
remains  within  hearing  of  the  gongs,  for  it  is  upon 
them  that  the  newspapers  depend  for  notifications  of 
fires. 

To  show  how  the  news  is  handled  let  it  be  supposed 
that  a  fire  is  discovered,  and  that  someone  sends  in  an 
alarm  from  box  No.  232.  Almost  before  the  per- 
son who  sent  in  the  call  for  the  firemen  has  lowered 
his  hand  from  the  box  the  gongs  in  the  Police  Head- 
quarters newspaper  offices  sound  two  taps,  three  more 
after  a  pause,  and  two  more  after  another  pause.  The 
complete  signal  is  repeated  twice,  and  usually  before 
the  second  one  has  finished  sounding  the  reporters, 
having  referred  to  key  books  furnished  by  the  Fire  De- 
partment and  thus  learned  the  location  of  the  signal 
box,  are  calling  their  city  editors  to  tell  them  where 
they  can  look  for  a  fire.  Some  city  editors  send  a 
reporter  in  response  to  every  alarm,  but  most  of  them 
do  not  have  enough  men  for  this  and  at  some  risk  to 
themselves  wait  for  more  information  before  acting. 
Occasionally  not  caring  to  detail  reporters  on  what  may 
be  useless  errands,  but  not  daring  to  wait,  the  city 
editors,  using  the  public  telephones,  call  shopkeepers 
shown  by  the  telephone  directory  to  be  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  fire,  and  endeavor  to  learn  in  this  manner 


8o  Making  a  Newspaper 

whether  it  is  a  serious  one.  But,  whether  they  do  this 
or  not,  they  await  with  some  anxiety  the  second  report 
from  headquarters.  This  is  never  long  in  coming, 
for  immediately  after  making  known  the  receipt  of  an 
alarm  the  reporters  begin  to  watch  for  the  bulletin  that 
represents  the  report  made  to  his  station  house  by  the 
patrolman  on  whose  beat  the  fire  occurred.  This  re- 
port, when  transmitted  to  the  editors,  tells  them  whether 
the  services  of  reporters  are  needed,  or  whether  they 
can  dispose  of  the  fire  by  instructing  some  office  worker 
to  write  a  few  lines  about  it.  Always,  though,  when 
following  a  first  alarm,  there  comes  a  second  calling 
for  more  apparatus,  the  editors  hurry  reporters  out  to 
get  the  news. 

In  the  course  of  a  day  and  a  night  there  are  about 
lOO  bulletins  displayed  at  Police  Headquarters  for  the 
inspection  of  the  newspaper  representatives,  and  of  the 
number  there  are  very  few  that  will  not  in  a  pinch 
furnish  material  for  at  least  a  couple  of  paragraphs. 
Here  are  some  of  the  bulletins  complete  except  for  the 
date: 


9th  Pet.   7  A.  M. 

6.30  a.  m.    Annie  Brown,  20  yrs.  7  Clarkson  Street, 
fell  downstairs,  broke  her  leg :  sent  St.  V.  hosp. 

P.  B. 


26th  Pet.    7.30  A.   M. 

6.45  a.  m.  Look  for  William  Smith,  78  yrs.,  slim, 
gray  hair  and  whiskers,  dark  clothing,  white  shirt, 
lace  shoes,  derby  hat;  carried  walking  stick,  stooped 
while  walking;  missing  since  May  10  from  989  West 
83rd  St.  E.  B. 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  8i 

15th  Pet.    8.15   A.    M. 

7.10  a.  m.  John  Doe,  attempted  suicide,  gas,  991 
East  Forty-fifth  Street,  Bellevue  Hosp.  R.  M. 

2nd  Pet.  8.15  A.  M. 

7.20  a.  m.  Body  unknown  man  found  off  Pier  i, 
East  River;  about  40  years,  5  ft.  10  in.;  hght  com- 
plexion, lace  shoes,  blue  shirt,  black  coat  and  trousers. 

J.  W. 

20th  Pet.    9.10  A.   M. 

8.40  a.  m.  James  Smith,  15  yrs.  655  West  37th 
Street,  knocked  down  37th  St  and  loth  ave  by  car; 
fracture  left  leg,  St  V.  hosp.  B.  A. 

14th  Pet.    10  A.  M. 

9.10  a.  m.  Runaway  horse,  belonging  Jones  &  Co., 
2200  Fourth  avenue,  stopped  at  4th  avenue  and  Thir- 
tieth street  by  Officer  Blue.  H.  McA. 

F.  H.  10.10  A.  M. 

128  Franklin  and  Centre.    Not.  6th  Pet. 

22nd  Pet.    10.15  A.  M. 

9.40  a.  m.  Street  car  collision  Broadway  and  66th 
St.  Robert  Williams,  merchant,  Hoboken,  cut  by 
glass,  Roosevelt  hosp.  H.  T. 

6th  Pet.   10.30  A.  M. 

10.10  a.  m.  Fire  916  Franklin  st.  unoccupied  stor- 
age warehouse,  owner  Henry  James,  11 1  Broadway, 
$300.  R.  M. 

A  little  explanation  will  make  these  bulletins  clear. 
The  first  one,  which  comes  from  the  Ninth  Precinct 


82  Making  a  Newspaper 

station  house,  reached  the  telegraph  bureau  at  7 
o'clock.  The  accident  occurred  at  6.30  o'clock  and 
the  injured  person  was  taken  to  St.  Vincent's  Hospital. 
The  initials  at  the  end  of  the  report  are  those  of  the 
sergeant  who  sent  it  to  Police  Headquarters.  The 
report  which  is  headed  F.  H.,  meaning  Fire  Head- 
quarters, conveys  the  information  that  at  10.10  a.  m. 
an  alarm  was  sent  in  from  box  No.  128  at  Franklin 
and  Centre  Streets,  and  that  Police  Headquarters  has 
notified  the  Sixth  Precinct  station  house.  The  last 
bulletin  given  is  that  submitted  by  the  station  house 
sergeant  who  received  the  notification  of  the  fire.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  twenty  minutes  after  the  fire  was 
discovered,  the  sergeant,  having  received  a  report  from 
the  man  on  whose  post  it  occurred,  is  able  to  tell  head- 
quarters where  the  fire  was,  who  owned  the  building, 
and  what  damage  was  done. 

Looking  over  the  bulletins,  the  headquarters  re- 
porters, all  men  who  have  proved  their  ability  and 
know  the  city  thoroughly,  pick  out  the  valuable  ones 
with  astonishing  facility.  Here  and  there  a  bulletin 
which  to  the  ordinary  observer  promises  nothing,  they 
pounce  upon  for  a  prize,  while  others  which  might 
be  fancied  by  an  outsider  they  dismiss  with  a  single 
reading.  No  little  responsibility  rests  upon  the  report- 
ers, for  the  editors,  although  they  complain  when  they 
are  made  to  listen  to  worthless  bulletins,  never  deal 
leniently  with  the  men  who  make  mistakes  and  with- 
hold the  wrong  ones.  In  addition  to  the  press  bureau 
the  reporters  stationed  at  Police  Headquarters  keep 
under  observation  the  offices  of  the  commissioner  and 
his  deputies,  where  transfers,  promotions,  and  dis- 
missals are  made  known ;  the  detective  bureau,  whence 
come  some  of  the  best  police  stories;  the  inspection 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  83 

and  license  bureaus,  and  the  bureau  of  information, 
where  they  sometimes  learn  of  the  loss  or  the  finding 
of  vahiable  articles,  of  persons  missing  from  home,  and 
the  receipt  of  requests  and  information  of  various 
kinds  from  the  police  of  other  cities.  The  reporters 
always  telephone  bulletins  to  their  offices,  but  getting 
long  stories  they  sometimes  write  them  and  have  them 
delivered  by  messengers.  Reporters  for  the  morn- 
ing papers  who  are  stationed  at  Police  Headciuarters 
go  on  duty  early  in  the  afternoon,  and  work  until  3 
o'clock  the  next  morning.  At  2  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing the  reporters  for  the  evening  papers  which  print 
the  very  early  editions  begin  a  vigil  which  is  continued 
until  the  middle  of  the  morning,  when  they  are  re- 
lieved by  men  who  continue  the  watch  until  late  in  the 
evening.  Reporters  for  the  other  afternoon  papers 
inspect  the  slips  from  6  or  7  o'clock  in  the  morning 
until  their  papers'  last  editions  are  printed. 

While  thankful  for  what  they  get,  the  headquarters 
reporters  are  always  wishing  that  they  might  have 
access  to  the  reports  which  are  kept  from  them.  These 
they  know  are  the  ones  that  would  permit  them  to 
furnish  sensations  every  day.  Of  most  of  the  bur- 
glaries, street  robberies,  embezzlements,  and  swindles 
which  are  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  police  the 
reporters  never  hear,  and  the  direct  result  is  that  the 
public  is  led  to  believe  that  the  city  is  a  great  deal  better 
than  it  is.  For  the  police  never  tell  anything  about 
any  of  these  things  until  they  have  made  an  arrest. 
And  even  then  the  truth  is  not  always  told.  The  de- 
tectives, who  usually  take  all  the  credit  for  important 
arrests,  make  themselves  out  to  be  veritable  ferrets  by 
telling  wonderful  tales  about  following  clews,  w^hile 
they  carefully  conceal  the  fact  that  they  got  their  in- 


84  Making  a  Newspaper  ' 

formation  from  some  scoundrel  who  is  a  living  refuta- 
tion of  the  nonsense  about  honor  among  thieves. 
There  is  no  honor  among  thieves,  at  least  among  the 
ones  known  to  the  police  as  professionals.  If  there 
w^ere,  few,  not  caught  red-handed,  would  ever  go  to 
prison. 

When  a  crime  is  reported  to  a  station  house  the  task 
of  making  an  investigation  is  assigned  by  the  captain 
or  a  sergeant  to  a  set  of  men  not  heretofore  mentioned. 
These  are  the  precinct  detectives,  often  called  the  ward- 
men,  who,  ranking  usually  as  patrolmen,  have  no  beats 
but  are  permitted  to  go  around  the  precinct  wherever 
they  choose.  They  do  not  wear  uniforms,  but  some 
of  them  proclaim  their  calling  by  dyeing  their  hair  and 
mustaches  a  deep  black  and  wearing  half-inch  soles 
on  their  shoes.  Generally  there  are  only  two  ward- 
men  attached  to  a  station  house,  but  in  some  precincts 
there  are  as  many  as  a  score  of  policemen  who  wear 
citizen's  clothing.  On  Broadway  and  other  crowded 
thoroughfares  there  are  always  more  policemen  on 
guard  than  is  apparent  to  the  ordinary  observer. 
Every  captain  has  one  wardman  in  whom  he  confides, 
and  commonly,  when  blackmail  is  levied,  this  favored 
individual  makes  arrangements  for  the  collection  of  the 
money.  The  wardmen  are  taken  with  him  by  a  cap- 
tain when  he  is  transferred  from  one  precinct  to  an- 
other, and  consequently  it  does  not  take  him  long  to 
establish  himself  in  his  new  territory.  The  ordinary 
patrolman  rarely  has  knowledge  of  the  doings  of  the 
wardmen,  and  half  the  people  on  his  beat  might  be 
paying  to  have  their  misdeeds  overlooked  without  his 
knowing  it  to  a  certainty.  Told  to  take  no  notice  of 
certain  places  he  might  well  be  suspicious,  but  sus- 
picion is  not  proof,  as  is  learned  by  the  persons,  who 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  85 

now  and  then  get  the  police  force  on  the  edge  of  re- 
form, but  never  get  it  squarely  over. 

If  a  crime  reported  to  a  station  house  is  of  no 
great  moment  the  precinct  detectives  labor  alone,  or 
assisted  by  some  of  the  patrolmen  wearing  every-day 
clothing;  but  in  an  important  case  the  chief  of  detect- 
ives details  several  of  his  men — most  of  whom  rank  as 
sergeants — to  join  in  the  investigation.  These  detect- 
ives are  the  real  sleuths  who  shine  so  brilliantly  in  the 
newspapers.  There  are  about  200  of  them;  so  many 
that  their  chief  does  not  know  what  to  do  with  them  all 
and  would,  were  it  not  for  the  courts,  lessen  the  num- 
ber. They  are  known  to  the  patrolmen  and  the  news- 
paper reporters  as  central  office,  or  front  office  men, 
and  among  them  are  a  few  genuine  detectives  who 
possess  great  shrewdness,  and  are  not  afraid  of  hard 
work.  Those  who  are  not  competent,  but  cannot  be 
removed  from  their  places,  are  ordinarily  detailed  by 
their  chief  to  visit  pawnshops  and  junk  shops  in 
search  of  stolen  goods.  The  pawnbrokers  are  com- 
pelled to  keep  a  record  of  everything  they  receive,  and 
on  demand  must  display  their  pledges  to  the  police. 

Early  when  they  are  making  an  investigation,  the 
detectives,  if  they  suspect  habitual  criminals,  those 
who  make  a  business  of  crime,  summon  to  their  assist- 
ance men  and  women  of  whom  the  public  never  hears, 
but  without  whose  aid  there  would  be  few  professional 
thieves  and  other  criminals  taken.  These  are  the  stool 
pigeons,  the  "every-night  citizens"  already  spoken  of 
who  collect  information  for  the  newspapers.  Sneak 
thieves,  burglars,  pickpockets,  dive-keepers,  footpads, 
or  touts,  themselves,  they  sue  for  favor  by  spying  on 
other  law-breakers.  Prowling  around  where  criminals 
congregate  they  keep  their  ears  open  for  chance  words, 


86  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  coming  into  possession  of  information  carry 
it  straight  to  the  detectives.  Amateur  thieves,  un- 
known to  their  spies,  the  detectives  catch,  because  the 
bad  habits  which  lead  them  to  steal  place  them  under 
suspicion,  and  because,  lacking  experience,  they  do  not 
go  to  the  right  places  to  dispose  of  their  plunder. 

There  is  one  policeman  who  deserves  special  men- 
tion. This  is  the  sergeant,  a  man  of  no  little  import- 
ance, especially  when  he  presides  over  the  station  house 
desk.  Past  middle  age,  as  he  usually  is,  he  has  local 
history  at  his  finger  tips,  and  his  stories  of  riots, 
rescues,  fires,  and  what  not  are  worth  hearing.  While 
in  charge  of  the  desk  he  has  power  to  release  a  prisoner 
brought  in,  where  it  appears  to  him  that  the  arrest  was 
made  unjustl}^,  and  frequently  he  is  called  upon  to  act 
as  a  judge.  In  poor  neighborhoods  everyone  takes 
his  troubles  to  the  station  house,  and  the  sergeant's 
advice,  proved  good  by  experience,  is  generally 
accepted. 

Day  and  night  the  desk  sergeants,  at  intervals  of 
a  few  hours,  are  visited  by  reporters,  for  some  of  the 
papers,  not  content  with  their  Police  Headquarters 
vigil,  keep  a  fairly  close  watch  on  the  station  houses, 
assigning  to  one  man  the  task  of  looking  after  five  or 
six  of  them.  These  reporters,  almost  always  begin- 
ners, tramp  from  one  station  house  to  another,  stopping 
in  each  one  to  ask  the  sergeant  if  he  has  any  news. 
A  crusty  sergeant  will  treat  them  with  scant 
courtesy  and  give  them  nothing;  a  kindly  one  will 
give  them  encouragement  and  good  advice  without 
end,  and  now  and  then  run  the  risk  of  incurring  the 
displeasure  of  an  officer  of  the  department  by  putting 
them  in  possession  of  information  worth  making 
known.     Getting  an  item,  the  reporters  telephone  it  to 


The  Police  as  Newsgatherers  87 

their  offices.  Sometimes  a  station  house  reporter  will 
have  two  or  three  hospitals  on  his  route,  and  some  of 
tliem  make  occasional  calls  at  the  Morgue. 

In  the  year  1905,  the  police  of  the  entire  city  of  New 
York  arrested  198,356  persons,  of  whom  158,470  were 
males  and  39,886  females.  The  number  taken  into 
custody  by  the  Central  Office  detectives  aggregated 
3619,  and  1534  persons,  105  of  them  women,  were 
measured  and  photographed  for  the  Rogues'  Gallery. 
During  the  year  173  foundlings  came  into  the  hands  of 
the  police.  Nineteen  hundred  and  nineteen  persons 
were  reported  missing  of  whom  1058  were  on  the  ''still 
missing"  list  at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  police  were 
notified  of  693  suicides;  they  gave  assistance  to  473 
persons  who  had  attempted  suicide  and  to  11,010  who 
were  sick  or  destitute;  found  open  and  unprotected 
2348  stores,  339  dwellings,  621  factories,  14  churches, 
and  I  bank;  took  notice  of  2106  sudden  deaths;  shot, 
according  to  the  official  report,  2  horses  and  245  mad 
dogs;  issued  permits  for  1496  parades  and  569  fune- 
rals; found  2360  lost  children;  arrested  1389  va- 
grants, of  whom  696  were  later  committed  to  prison; 
conveyed,  or  had  conveyed,  to  hospitals  28,568  persons, 
and  to  their  homes  21,128;  found  2170  animals 
astray,  and  reported  8486  fires. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  explanation  of  the 
duties  of  the  police,  the  collection  of  news  and  its 
dissemination,  it  can  be  seen  that,  were  they  to  be  de- 
prived of  the  assistance  of  the  police,  the  newspapers 
would  at  once  find  themselves  in  a  bad  way.  Murders 
they  might  hear  of  within  a  day  or  two,  most  accidents 
they  would  miss  entirely;  fires  they  might  learn  of 
through  having  reporters  chase  the  engines;  of  rob- 
beries they  would  hear  only  occasionally;  and  of  a 


88  Making  a  Newspaper 

multitude  of  things  coimected  with  city  Hfe  to  which 
they  now  give  attention  they  would  hear  not  a  word. 
A  reporter,  before  he  can  understand  the  fundamental 
workings  of  a  newspaper,  must  learn  about  its  relations 
with  the  police,  and  nothing  has  been  touched  on  here 
that  a  reporter  should  not  know. 


CHAPTER  VII 

POLICE  COURTS  AS  NEWS  CENTERS 

Little  less  productive  of  news  than  Police  Head- 
quarters are  the  magistrates'  courts,  the  lowest  crimi- 
nal courts  of  the  city,  in  which  are  arraigned  all  per- 
sons taken  into  custody  by  the  police.  By  law  it  is 
provided  that  the  arraignment  must  follow  the  arrest 
immediately,  if  the  courts  are  open  at  the  time,  and 
any  policeman  who  holds  a  prisoner  unnecessarily 
before  taking  him  to  court  may  be  punished  by  a  fine 
or  by  dismissal  from  the  force.  Through  these  courts 
trail  the  town's  very  dregs,  and  scattered  in  with  the 
dregs  there  is  occasionally  found  a  highly  respected 
citizen  arrested  for  some  minor  offense,  such  as  failing 
to  have  the  snow  cleared  from  the  sidewalk  in  front  of 
his  house;  or  maybe  a  bank  cashier  or  a  trusted  clerk 
who  has  strayed  from  the  paths  of  rectitude  and 
been  detected.  The  newspapers  keep  themselves  in- 
formed concerning  the  identity  of  all  persons  who 
visit  the  magistrates'  courts  as  prisoners,  complainants, 
witnesses,  or  sightseers,  by  keeping  a  watch  on  them 
every  minute  while  they  are  open  for  business.  Every 
visitor  is  closely  scrutinized  by  the  reporters  and  none 
of  the  proceedings  escapes  them.  To  get  his  name 
into  the  newspapers  through  a  magistrate's  court  it  is 
not  absolutely  necessary  for  a  prominent  man  to  appear 
in  person;  his  cook,  his  relative,  or  under  some  cir- 
cumstances an  acquaintance  need  only  show  himself, 

89 


90  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  the  reporters  will  see  that  the  prominent  man 
shines  in  the  reflected  Hght. 

There  are  in  Manhattan  Borough  six  magistrates' 
courts,  and  in  the  Borough  of  the  Bronx  two.  Offi- 
cially they  are  classed  as  District  Magistrates'  Courts, 
but  in  the  newspapers  they  are  called  police  courts,  and 
holding  that  few  persons  know  them  by  their  official 
titles,  the  reporters  have  given  names  to  them  all. 
There  are  no  jury  trials  in  these  courts.  Each  one  is 
presided  over  by  a  magistrate  who  has  power  to  dis- 
pose of  trivial  cases  forthwith,  and  who,  having  heard 
the  evidence,  decides  whether  prisoners  charged  with 
serious  offenses  shall  be  held  for  trial  in  a  higher 
tribunal.  Prisoners  discharged  by  a  magistrate  may, 
however,  be  indicted  and  rearrested,  and  an  adverse 
decision  may  be  reversed  by  a  higher  trial  court.  In 
each  court  there  are,  except  on  Saturdays,  Sundays,  and 
holidays,  when  a  morning  session  only  is  held,  two 
sessions  daily,  one  beginning  at  9  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  the  second  after  an  hour's  recess  at  2 
in  the  afternoon. 

The  magistrate's  seat,  near  which  are  those  of  the 
court  clerks,  is  behind  a  desk  which,  extending  from 
wall  to  wall,  is  unbroken  by  a  gate.  This  arrange- 
ment is  never  departed  from,  for  were  there  a  gateway 
all  the  ward  heelers  and  a  good  share  of  the  other 
neighborhood  celebrities  would  every  day  insist  on 
passing  through  it  in  an  endeavor  to  get  on  close  terms 
with  justice.  The  desk  behind  which  the  magistrate 
sits  is  higher  than  the  head  of  a  person  standing  on  the 
main  floor,  and  wishing  to  speak  to  him  complainants, 
witnesses,  and  lawyers  step  up  on  a  raised  platform 
known  as  the  bridge.  On  the  side  of  this  platform 
away  from  the  magistrate  is  a  low  railing,  back  of 


Police  Courts  as  News  Centers  91 

which  the  prisoners  are  arraigned  standing,  and  unable 
to  make  himself  heard,  a  prisoner  has  his  words  re- 
peated to  the  magistrate  by  a  poHceman  who  stands  on 
the  bridge.  At  the  pohceman's  elbow  is  stationed  an 
interpreter,  whose  services  in  some  courts  are  demanded 
almost  as  often  as  a  prisoner  is  led  to  the  railing. 

A  police  court  appears  to  have  a  fascination  for  cer- 
tain classes  of  the  city's  population,  and  among  its 
more  persistent  visitors  as  spectators  are  many  who 
live  lives  which  will  not  bear  investigation.  When  a 
pickpocket  is  arraigned,  some  of  his  acquaintances  are 
sure  to  be  on  hand  to  find  out  how  he  fares,  and  a 
burglar  in  court  looking  over  the  spectators  can  always 
find  a  friendly  face.  Detectives  aware  of  this  keep 
watch  on  the  crowd  that  assembles  when  it  becomes 
known  that  a  notorious  criminal  is  to  be  arraigned, 
and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  them  to  make  arrests  at  the 
courtroom  doors. 

The  crime  and  the  misery  that  are  uncovered  in  these 
minor  courts  are  beyond  the  comprehension  of  all  ex- 
cept those  who  have  for  long  periods  listened  to  the 
tales  that  are  told  in  them.  It  is  not  unusual  for  the 
court  policemen  inured  to  suffering  by  years  of  con- 
tact with  it  to  hear  stories  which  draw  bread  money 
from  their  pockets,  and  occasionally  they  are  com- 
pelled to  listen  to  stories  so  revolting  that  they  can 
with  difficulty  keep  themselves  from  flying  on  the  mon- 
sters brought  to  justice.  Not  a  week  passes  that  the 
magistrates  and  the  policemen  are  not  actually  horri- 
fied. The  newspapers  rarely  allow  the  disgusting  and 
horrible  stories  which  are  laid  bare  before  the  magis- 
trates to  get  into  their  columns,  but  even  with  these 
thrown  out  they  get  from  the  police  courts  every  day 
about  as  varied  a  collection  of  news  as  it  would  be 


92  Making  a  Newspaper 

possible  to  imagine.  Supplementing  the  stories  first 
brought  to  their  attention  at  Police  Headquarters  with 
those  procured  in  the  courts,  they  could  provide  a  pretty 
fair  account  of  the  city's  happenings  without  going 
to  any  further  trouble  or  expense. 

Before  the  newspapers  decided  to  co-operate  each 
one  of  them  kept  a  reporter  stationed  in  every  police 
court,  but  now  there  are  only  two  men  detailed  to 
gather  a  court's  news;  one  is  a  representative  of  the  co- 
operative association,  the  other  represents  the  two 
papers  which  do  not  belong  to  it.  If  they  could  take 
notes  of  a  session's  proceedings  and  do  their  writing 
after  the  adjournment  the  men  could  work  independ- 
ently, but  as  they  have  to  write  their  articles  while  the 
magistrate  is  sitting,  they  are  compelled  if  they  are  to 
miss  nothing  to  follow  the  proceedings  turn  and  turn 
about.  Now  and  then  a  magistrate  new  to  the  bench 
refuses  to  recognize  the  reporters  as  possessing  more 
rights  than  the  ordinary  spectators,  and  has  them  kept 
outside  of  the  railing  which  divides  the  courtroom ;  but 
before  long  he  realizes  that  there  is  a  reason  why  privi- 
leges should  be  accorded  them,  and  allows  them  to  find 
places  where  they  can  hear  what  is  said  both  by  him- 
self and  by  those  who  come  before  him,  in  whatever 
capacity. 

The  newspaper  representatives  appear  in  the  court- 
room a  few  minutes  before  9  o'clock.  Previous  to  this, 
though,  they  report  to  their  city  editors  in  person  or 
by  telephone,  and  ask  if  there  are  any  instructions  for 
them.  On  the  scene  of  their  labors  they  immediately 
begin  to  interrogate  the  detectives  and  the  uniformed 
policemen  whose  presence  proclaims  that  they  have 
prisoners  to  arraign,  and  questioning  some  from  each 
station  house  and  some  from  Police  Headquarters  they 


Police  Courts  as  News  Centers  93 

soon  learn  of  any  extraordinary  happenings  which 
may  have  occurred  during  the  night.  Knowing  that 
reports  of  his  exploits,  appearing  in  the  papers,  will 
reach  the  officers  of  his  department,  a  policeman  is 
always  glad  to  tell  of  an  incident  in  which  he  figured 
with  distinction,  but  not  sure  that  he  acted  in  a  manner 
that  will  call  for  approbation,  he  is  reluctant  to  talk. 
If  they  are  repulsed  by  a  policeman  the  reporters  listen 
closely  when  the  case  in  which  he  is  interested  is 
reached,  and,  getting  the  material  necessary,  write 
stories  which  will  not  add  to  his  peace  of  mind  when 
he  sees  them  in  print. 

The  newsgatherers  make  their  plans  according  to  the 
early  reports  they  get  from  the  policemen.  If  they 
learn  that  among  the  prisoners  there  are  some,  con- 
nected with  whose  arrest  there  are  interesting  stories, 
they  agree  to  center  their  activities  on  these,  and  to 
pay  no  attention  to  the  trivial  cases.  Should  their  in- 
quiries, to  their  disappointment,  force  them  to  the  con- 
clusion that  they  will  not  get  an  opportunity  to  write 
long  stories,  they  go  up  on  the  bridge  in  search  of 
morsels  which  in  the  aggregate  will  fill  an  appreciable 
space  in  the  papers,  even  if  they  are  not  worth  much 
separately.  In  a  pinch  the  prisoners  who  are  present 
in  greatest  number,  those  arrested  while  intoxicated, 
can  be  depended  upon  to  furnish  material  for  writing. 
There  are  arraigned  in  a  court,  daily,  anywhere  from 
a  half-dozen  to  fifty  of  these  offenders,  and  there  are 
always  some  whose  replies  when  they  are  questioned 
are  worth  repeating  in  print. 

As  soon  as  he  has  procured  material  for  one  or  two 
stories,  one  of  the  reporters  withdraws  to  write  them, 
leaving  his  fellow  worker  on  the  bridge  to  follow  the 
proceedings.     In    most    courts,  there    are    anterooms 


94  Making  a  Newspaper 

which  the  reporters  are  permitted  to  occupy,  but  in 
others  they  have  no  better  accommodation  than  a 
small  table  which  stands  in  a  corner,  and  is  largely 
monopolized  by  lawyers  and  policemen.  His  stories 
written,  the  first  reporter  returns  to  the  bridge,  and 
the  other  man  takes  a  turn  at  writing.  So  they  work 
while  the  session  lasts,  consulting  together  and  com- 
paring notes  and  written  stories,  at  brief  intervals. 
But  the  reporters,  were  they  to  confine  themselves 
to  the  official  proceedings,  would  send  few  interesting 
stories  to  their  ofihces,  for  commonly  in  the  actual 
hearing  details  are  omitted.  What  the  reporters  do  is 
to  rely  upon  the  proceedings  for  main  facts  only, 
and  procure  their  complete  stories  from  the  police- 
men, complainants,  and  witnesses. 

Let  it  be  supposed  that  a  burglar  wdio  is  captured  in 
a  house  into  which  he  had  broken  is  haled  into  court. 
The  reporters,  learning  of  his  presence,  get  the  ear 
of  his  captor,  and  after  hearing  his  story  turn  to  the 
householder,  who  will  be  present  to  give  his  testimony, 
and  from  him  glean  the  information  necessary  to  fill 
out  their  accounts.  They  now  write  their  articles 
without  waiting  for  the  case  to  be  brought  to  the 
magistrate's  attention,  completing  them  probably  about 
the  time  the  burglar  is  arraigned.  When  the  arraign- 
ment is  made  the  householder  testifies  that  the  prisoner 
was  captured  on  his  premises,  and  the  policeman  tells 
briefly  about  the  arrest,  whereupon  the  magistrate 
ends  the  proceedings  by  holding  the  prisoner  for  trial 
in  a  higher  court.  Their  stories  already  written,  the 
reporters  send  them  to  their  ofifices  by  messengers,  after 
delaying  no  longer  than  is  necessary  to  add  the  magis- 
trate's action. 

Occasionally,  when  the  arraignment  is  slow  in  com- 


Police  Courts  as  News  Centers  95 

ing  they  send  their  stories  to  their  offices  without  wait- 
ing for  the  hearing,  and  thus  it  sometimes  happens  that 
in  one  edition  of  a  paper  a  person  is,  in  view  of  a 
pohceman's  tale,  set  forth  as  a  criminal  of  the  worst 
type,  while  in  a  later  one  it  is  announced  that  he  was 
accused  unjustly,  and  was  set  free  when  the  magistrate 
heard  the  testimony.  None  of  the  stories  which  the 
reporters  collect  in  the  courtroom  corners  are  matters 
of  record,  and  because  of  this  a  police  court  is  a  regu- 
lar incubator  of  libel  suits.  And  the  reporters  are 
placed  between  two  fires.  If  they  write  bare  accurate 
accounts  of  the  official  proceedings  and  hold  stories  for 
the  decisions,  they  are  told  in  no  uncertain  words  that 
details  are  wanted,  and  reminded  that  they  are  not 
w^orking  for  weekly  publications,  while  if  they  collect 
details  and  hurry  their  stories  along  they  expose  them- 
selves to  the  danger  of  involving  their  papers  in  litiga- 
tion, and  ruining  their  own  reputations  for  veracity  and 
trustworthiness. 

In  the  police  courts  of  Manhattan  and  Bronx 
boroughs  there  were  147,925  prisoners  arraigned  in  the 
year  1905,  and  of  these  102,137  were  under  the  sum- 
mary jurisdiction  of  the  magistrates.  In  addition 
the  magistrates  in  this  year  had  to  deal  with  over 
125,000  summons  cases.  The  persons  who  w^ant  sum- 
monses are  the  bane  of  a  magistrate's  existence.  He 
will  not  issue  a  warrant  unless  he  has  a  fair  amount 
of  proof  that  an  offense  has  been  committed.  But  a 
summons  he  will  issue  on  assertion  alone,  and  know- 
ing this  the  tenement  population  avails  itself  of  sum- 
monses. As  soon  as  two  women  get  in  a  tenement- 
house  quarrel  one  of  them  posts  off  to  the  nearest  police 
court  to  call  the  actions  of  her  antagonist  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  magistrate.     Then  the  alleged  wrongdoer 


96  Making  a  Newspaper 

gets  a  summons,  which  is  nothing  more  than  an  in- 
vitation to  appear  and  give  an  explanation  of  what 
on  the  surface  looks  like  a  breach  of  the  peace.  In 
court  she  is  neither  regarded  nor  treated  as  a  prisoner 
unless  her  explanation  shows  that  the  assertion  of 
wrongdoing  made  by  her  neighbor  was  true,  in  which 
case  the  magistrate  may  order  her  arrest  forthwith. 
About  two-thirds  of  the  summons  cases  come  to  noth- 
ing, but  they  take  time,  and  on  uneventful  days  they 
give  the  reporters  opportunities  to  try  their  hands  at 
dialogue  and  dialect. 

At  intervals  in  the  course  of  the  day  messengers 
sent  from  the  newspaper  offices  call  for  the  articles 
prepared  by  the  police-court  reporters,  but  important 
news  the  reporters  telephone  to  their  papers.  Late  in 
the  afternoon,  though,  news  must  be  of  more  than 
casual  importance  to  receive  attention  from  the 
evening  papers.  At  the  close  of  the  day  the  police- 
court  reporters  go  to  their  offices,  rewrite  their  stories 
for  the  use  of  the  morning  papers,  and  after  this,  every 
other  night  at  least,  work  three  or  four  hours  with  the 
general  newsgatherers. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
STARTING  THE  DAY'S  WORK 

Even  knowing  the  places  where  news  is  looked  for 
and  the  manner  in  which  a  part  of  it  is  collected,  one 
must  learn  something  about  the  routine  of  a  news- 
paper office  and  the  relations  existing  between  morn- 
ing and  evening  publications  before  he  can  comprehend 
how  a  city  editor  plans  his  work  and  how  he  distributes 
and  directs  his  reporters. 

In  the  office  of  a  morning  newspaper  which  publishes 
a  paper  on  Sunday,  and  most  of  the  big  ones  do  issue 
Sunday  editions,  work  goes  on  from  one  end  of  the 
year  to  the  other  without  a  break.  For  both  editors  and 
reporters  Sunday  is  different  from  no  other  day,  for 
while  each  man  who  receives  a  salary  gets  one  day 
for  rest  out  of  every  seven,  the  editors  arrange  to  have 
an  equal  number  away  each  day  the  week  around.  Al- 
lowed to  choose  for  themselves  the  time  when  they 
shall  stay  away  from  the  office,  most  of  the  workers 
select  a  week-day,  having  in  mind  the  theaters  and 
other  places  of  amusement.  The  space-paid  reporters, 
like  the  salaried  men,  are  permitted  to  take  one  day 
off  every  week,  but  there  is  no  compulsion  about  this, 
and  some  of  them,  anxious  to  make  their  incomes  as 
large  as  possible,  do  not  miss  a  day  for  months  at 
a  time.  The  largest  morning  papers  do  not  sus- 
pend publication  on  any  of  the  holidays.  In  a  ma- 
jority of  the  evening  newspaper  offices  there  is  a  break 

97 


98  Making  a  Newspaper 

once  a  week,  no  paper  being  issued  on  Sunday,  and 
most  evening  papers  suspend  publication  on  one  holi- 
day— Christmas.  For  all  newspaper  workers  in  the 
large  cities  Decoration  Day  and  the  Fourth  of  July 
mean  extra  effort,  as  on  these  occasions  there  are 
parades,  public  meetings,  and  a  great  number  of  ath- 
letic meets  to  be  reported.  Labor  Day  is,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Election  Day,  the  busiest  day 
of  the  year.  On  it  so  many  races  and  athletic  games 
are  held  that  the  city  editor  and  the  sporting  editor 
always  have  trouble  in  planning  so  that  there  shall  be 
enough  reporters  to  go  around. 

When  no  paper  is  issued  on  Sunday,  it  may  be  con- 
sidered that  in  an  evening  paper  office  a  new  chapter 
is  begun  every  Monday  morning;  and  a  responsible 
place  is  held  by  the  man  who  on  this,  as  on  the  other 
mornings,  begins  the  work,  lays  the  foundations  upon 
which  the  editors  and  the  reporters  later  build.  He 
must  be  able  to  gauge  with  great  accuracy  the  news 
value  of  any  occurrence  that  comes  to  his  notice,  and 
it  is  essential  that  he  be  a  very  rapid  worker.  Usually 
he  is  one  of  the  paper's  copy  readers,  and  where  this  is 
the  case  it  often  happens  that  many  of  the  reporters 
think  of  him  as  a  copy  reader  only,  either  knowing 
nothing  about  or  failing  to  appreciate  the  important 
work  he  performs  long  before  the  majority  of  the 
staff  report  for  duty. 

There  is  at  the  start  only  one  source  from  which 
the  foundation  builder  can  glean  material.  That 
source  is  the  newly  issued  morning  papers,  and  while 
searching  them  he  cannot  help  realizing  that  between 
morning  papers  and  evening  papers  considered  as 
classes  there  exists  an  exceedingly  close  relationship. 
He  sees  that  those  of  one  class  continually  obtain  aid 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  99 

from  those  of  the  other,  and  that  in  a  sense  the  two 
classes  move  in  a  circle,  one  always  beginning  where 
the  other  leaves  off. 

Having  procured  copies  of  all  the  morning  papers 
published  in  his  city,  and  when  he  starts  to  work  very 
early  he  has  to  get  some  of  them  in  roundabout  ways, 
the  foundation  builder  wastes  no  time  before  beginning 
his  search.  Stories  of  two  kinds  are  in  demand :  first 
and  most  important,  stories  which  are  capable  of 
development,  as  the  account  of  a  prisoner's  escape ;  and 
second,  stories  w4iich,  while  complete  in  themselves, 
are  worth  rewriting.  Starting  his  work  the  founda- 
tion builder  always  attacks  first  the  paper  in  which  he 
expects  to  find  the  most  news.  He  strives  to  get  every 
sentence,  but  trained  to  read  rapidly,  and  hurried  as 
he  always  is,  he  moves  his  eyes  down  a  column  in  a 
fraction  of  the  time  that  would  be  required  by  an 
ordinary  reader.  When  he  encounters  an  article  which 
he  thinks  will  be  of  use  he  marks  it  by  drawing  a  circle 
around  its  heading.  Through  with  his  first  paper  he 
takes  up  the  one  he  considers  the  next  best,  and  this 
process  he  continues  until  he  has  disposed  of  them  all. 

To  illustrate  the  methods  of  the  early  morning 
reader,  let  it  be  supposed  that  he  comes  across  an  ac- 
count of  a  political  meeting.  Should  the  article  show 
that  the  meeting  was  devoid  of  interest  and  of  no  im- 
portance, he  dismisses  it  offhand.  Should  he  find, 
however,  that  the  meeting,  while  devoid  of  sensa- 
tions, was  well  attended;  that  good  speeches  were 
made,  and  that  the  audience  was  enthusiastic,  he  marks 
the  article  while  deciding  to  have  it  rewritten.  The 
third  possibility  is  the  greatest.  At  the  meeting,  pri- 
marily important  or  not,  one  of  the  speakers  may  have 
made  a  personal  or  particularly  violent  political  attack 


loo  Making  a  Newspaper 

on  some  man  in  the  public  eye;  there  may  have  been  a 
clash  among  those  in  charge  of  the  meeting ;  or  again, 
the  meeting  may  have  ended  in  disorder.  Whatever 
the  unusual  feature  the  reader  pounces  upon  it.  If  one 
of  the  speakers  has  assailed  someone,  a  reporter  will 
have  to  be  detailed  to  ask  him  whether  he  has  been 
correctly  quoted,  what  impelled  him  to  make  the  attack, 
and  whether  he  has  anything  to  add  to  his  reported  re- 
marks. Also,  the  same  reporter  or  another  one  will  have 
to  be  assigned  to  get  a  talk  with  the  man  assailed,  who, 
glad  of  the  chance  to  defend  himself,  may  be  expected 
to  talk  about  the  motive  of  the  speaker ;  and  the  chances 
are  that  the  article  reciting  what  he  says  will  prove  to 
be  at  least  as  interesting  as  the  one  containing  the 
attack.  Sometimes,  too,  the  men  who  presided  at  the 
meeting  will  have  to  be  asked  to  express  their  opinions. 
In  case  the  meeting  broke  up  in  disorder  or  there  was 
a  clash,  the  afternoon  paper  will  have  to  ascertain 
whether  there  were  any  occurrences  not  recorded  in 
the  morning  papers,  what  caused  the  row,  whether 
there  is  a  likelihood  that  there  will  be  future  trouble, 
and  what  the  party  leaders  think  about  the  affair. 
Sometimes  the  story  has  an  end  which  leads  to  a  police 
court,  and  there  have  been  political  meetings  which 
made  it  necessary  for  the  reporters  to  visit  the  Morgue. 
If  the  reader,  through  with  the  account  of  the  politi- 
cal mxceting,  finds  a  story  dealing  with  a  big  fire  of  the 
night  before,  he  marks  it,  knowing  that  many  persons 
will  want  to  know  more  than  the  morning  papers  told 
them.  There  is  always  the  possibility  that  bodies  will 
be  found  in  the  ruins  and  it  may  be  that  evidence 
will  be  uncovered  indicating  incendiarism.  The  news- 
gatherer  who  will  be  sent  to  report  the  fire  will  find 
plenty  to  do;  the  owner  of  the  building  will  have  to  be 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  loi 

seen,  the  agents  who  insured  it,  the  tenants,  the  firemen 
sometimes,  and  the  pohce  ahiiost  always. 

Learning  next  that  James  Brown,  the  prominent 
banker,  has  been  arrested  for  running  his  automobile 
through  the  streets  at  high  speed,  the  reader  marks 
the  article  telling  of  the  occurrence,  because  everyone 
will  want  to  know  what  happened  to  Mr.  Brown  when 
he  was  arraigned  before  a  magistrate. 

A  visiting  prince  is  going  to  sail  for  Europe  on  one 
of  the  fast  steamships.  He  must  be  seen  at  the  pier 
and  interviewed,  so  the  article  that  tells  of  his 
approaching  departure  is  marked. 

So  is  the  one  which  says  that  a  widely  known  resi- 
dent of  the  city  is  to  be  married.  If  the  report  is  true, 
the  man  will  probably  be  glad  to  confirm  it ;  if  it  is  not, 
he  may  be  induced  to  talk  about  busy-bodies.  And  if 
the  man  does  deny  the  truth  of  the  published  announce- 
ment, the  paper  will  have  to  look  alive,  for  then  there 
is  a  possibility  that  a  breach  of  promise  suit  is  brewing. 

A  story  dispatched  from  some  town  in  a  remote  sec- 
tion of  the  state  tells  the  reader  that  a  much-respected 
citizen  of  the  place  has  disappeared  after  having  de- 
spoiled the  bank  of  which  he  was  cashier  of  so  much 
money  that  the  depositors  are  afraid  the  institution 
will  not  be  able  to  meet  its  obligations.  The  story  says 
that  the  missing  man,  it  has  been  learned  since  his 
flight,  was  infatuated  with  a  woman  w^io  once  lived 
in  his  town,  but  was  last  heard  of,  say  in  Backville, 
Ohio,  and  that  the  police  of  Backville  have  been  asked 
to  watch  for  him.  Here  is  a  tale  with  many  ends. 
From  the  town  in  which  the  bank  is  situated  the  after- 
noon paper  will  have  to  procure  a  story,  giving  the 
amount  of  the  defalcation,  the  events  connected  with 
the   cashier's   flight,   the  time   of   his   departure,  and 


I02  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  direction  he  is  thought  to  have  taken.  A  talk  with 
one  of  the  bank  officers  will  also  be  in  demand,  and  it 
must  be  arranged  to  have  a  watch  kept  for  a  possible 
"run"  on  the  institution.  The  Backville  correspondent 
will  have  to  be  told  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts  of  the 
woman  with  whom  the  cashier  was  on  such  good 
terms,  and  if  possible  get  her  to  talk  about  the  thief  and 
his  flight;  and  this  correspondent  must  also  be  in- 
structed to  keep  in  touch  with  the  police  of  his  town, 
so  that,  should  the  missing  man  fall  into  their  clutches, 
the  paper  will  be  promptly  informed  of  the  fact.  In 
addition  to  these  out-of-town  ends  of  the  story  there 
are  local  features  which  will  demand  attention.  The 
local  police  will  have  to  be  asked  whether  they  have 
any  reason  to  believe  that  the  fugitive  is  striving  to 
reach  the  territory  which  they  guard,  and  the  reporter 
at  Police  Headquarters  will  have  to  be  instructed  to 
watch  the  slips  displayed  there  with  more  than  ordi- 
nary care.  Another  local  end  to  the  story  will  be 
found  in  the  financial  district  of  the  city.  Some  bank 
there  is,  in  all  probability,  the  correspondent  of  the 
despoiled  institution,  and  a  reporter  will  have  to  be 
detailed  to  ascertain  wdiether  the  local  bank  will  suffer 
if  the  out-of-town  institution  fails,  and  if  so,  to  what 
extent.  Also  some  of  the  officers  of  the  local  bank 
may  have  personal  knowledge  of  the  missing  cashier, 
and  so  be  able  to  tell  something  about  his  habits  and 
name  some  of  the  persons  in  the  city  with  whom  he  is 
acquainted  and  who  might  possibly  know  of  his  where- 
abouts. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  the  marriage  notices  fur- 
nish the  foundation  for  good  news  stories,  so  they  are 
never  neglected  by  the  foundation  builder.  The  name 
of  a  well-known  or  notorious  person  attracts  his  atten- 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  103 

tion  as  would  a  diamond,  and  he  reads  every  notice  to 
the  end  to  see  whether  any  of  the  lovers  went  to  the 
top  of  the  Statue  of  Liberty  or  to  some  other  unusual 
place  to  have  the  ceremony  uniting  them  performed. 
It  used  to  be  that  weddings  of  this  kind  were  recorded 
every  few  weeks,  but  of  recent  years  the  crop  of 
notoriety-seeking  lovers  has  fallen  off,  and  it  is  not  often 
that  a  wedding  furnishes  a  theme  for  the  newspapers' 
humorous  writers.  Frequently,  though,  the  reader 
does  find  announcements  of  marriages  performed 
months  or  years  before,  and  these  he  marks  for  the 
attention  of  a  reporter  who  will  be  detailed  to  call  on 
the  married  pair,  their  relatives,  and  the  minister  who 
performed  the  ceremony,  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  w^hy 
the  w^edding  w^as  kept  a  secret  and  wdiat  led  to  the 
decision  to  make  it  public.  Almost  always  there  are 
stories  which  would  be  worth  the  writing  back  of 
these  delayed  marriage  notices,  but  they  frequently 
elude  the  reporter's  grasp. 

Other  fields  never  neglected  are  the  death  lists. 
Here,  too,  the  reader  watches  for  familiar  names,  and 
peculiarly  worded  notices.  Also  he  keeps  a  lookout 
for  similar  names,  for  wdien  two  persons  in  one  family 
die  at  the  same  time,  or  near  it,  the  public's  attention 
must  be  called  to  the  fact  more  pointedly  than  it  is  by 
the  publication  of  the  formal  announcements.  A  name 
appearing  in  both  the  marriage  and  death  notices  al- 
w^ays  arrests  attention,  as  it  probably  indicates  a  death- 
bed marriage. 

How^  dangerous  it  is  for  a  paid  newspaper  reader 
to  overlook  an  item,  or  fail  to  grasp  the  possibilities  of 
one  he  does  read,  is  illustrated  by  an  incident  wdiich 
occurred  in  New  York  several  years  ago.  There  was 
brought  into  port  one  day  a  handful  of  persons  wdio, 


I04  Making  a  Newspaper 

when  picked  up  at  sea  while  floating  about  in  a  lifeboat, 
made  known  an  awful  catastrophe.  While  plowing 
through  a  fog  the  vessel  on  which  they  had  started 
across  the  Atlantic  had  collided  with  another  vessel  and 
gone  down  before  many  of  the  400  persons  aboard 
had  had  time  to  realize  what  was  happening.  When 
they  were  placed  safe  on  land  the  rescued  persons  were 
looked  upon  as  the  only  survivors  of  the  wreck.  The 
newspapers,  of  course,  devoted  whole  pages  to  the 
disaster.  They  told  again  and  again  how  the  wrecked 
vessel,  and  another  one  the  identity  of  which  had  not 
yet  been  established,  had  come  together  in  the  fog; 
how  one  had  floated  away  and  been  lost  sight  of,  and 
how  the  passengers  and  crew  of  the  other  who  reached 
the  deck  had  fought  for  possession  of  the  lifeboats, 
the  only  hope  of  safety.  For  a  week  there  was  little 
else  in  the  papers  than  news  of  the  disaster.  Just 
when  the  wreck  news  was  beginning  to  get  noticeably 
threadbare  there  arrived  at  a  nearby  port  a  storm- 
wracked,  lumber-laden  schooner  which  had  for  pas- 
sengers a  half-dozen  more  survivors  who  had  been 
blown  away  to  the  westward  from  the  scene  of  the  dis- 
aster in  a  tiny  boat.  No  more  of  the  wrecked  vessel's 
passengers  were  ever  found,  although  the  ship  which 
had  collided  with  her  and  afterward  floated  away 
reached  land  after  a  long  delay  due  to  injuries  received 
in  the  collision.  The  landing  of  the  persons  rescued 
by  the  schooner  gave  the  reporters  fresh  material  upon 
which  to  work,  and  they  again  wrote  long  stories,  parts 
of  which  were  now  devoted  to  the  heroism  of  the 
lumber-carrier's  crew.  None  of  the  reporters  who 
talked  with  the  second  lot  of  survivors  and  with  the 
schooner's  crew  made  much  of  it,  but  several  of  them 
mentioned  the  fact  in  their  stories  that  the  schooner. 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  105 

after  picking  up  the  boat,  had  run  to  a  certain  coast 
town  and  there  taken  aboard  a  stock  of  provisions  to 
feed  the  unexpected  passengers.  Reading  a  reference 
to  this  landing,  one  man  whose  duty  it  was  to  search 
for  material  remembered  that  on  the  day  before  the 
steamship  which  made  the  disaster  known  had  reached 
port,  he  had  seen  and  partly  read  in  a  paper  other 
than  that  on  which  he  w^as  employed  a  brief  item  sent 
from  this  coast  tow-n  saying  that  a  lumber  schooner 
which  was  then  anchored  offshore  waiting  for  a  storm 
to  pass  had  late  the  night  before  sent  a  man  ashore 
for  provisions,  and  that  it  was  reported  that  the 
schooner  had  aboard  several  survivors  of  a  wreck  at 
sea.  Comprehending  what  had  been  hidden  in  the 
stray  item  so  carelessly  read,  the  newspaper  reader  was 
brought  almost  to  tears;  first  because  he  had  lost  a 
chance  to  get  a  beat  for  his  paper  wdiich  would  have 
caused  talk  all  over  the  world;  again  for  joy  that  no 
other  reader,  more  keen  and  careful  than  he,  had 
realized  the  item's  worth  and  set  in  motion  the  ma- 
chinery which  would  have  made  known  the  loss  of  the 
steamship  hours  before  the  first  lot  of  survivors  w^ere 
put  ashore  and  set  on  high  his  paper's  reputation, 
and  to  a  lesser  extent,  his  own. 

After  he  has  finished  reading  his  papers,  the  founda- 
tion builder,  who  in  the  office  vernacular  is  the  "man 
who  reads  the  papers,"  goes  through  them  with  a  pair 
of  shears  and  cuts  out  the  marked  articles.  Most 
readers  while  doing  their  reading  use  two  copies  of 
each  paper,  marking  the  odd-numbered  pages  of  one 
and  the  even-numbered  pages  of  the  other,  so  that 
wielding  the  shears  they  do  not  mutilate  one  article 
while  clipping  another. 

After  finishing  his  clipping  the  reader  goes  over  the 


io6  Making  a  Newspaper 

articles  cut  out,  underscoring  with  a  pencil  the  names 
of  persons  who  must  be  seen  by  reporters,  and  inclos- 
ing in  circles  important  paragraphs.  This  task  com- 
pleted he  begins  to  make  out  two  schedules  of  the 
stories  which  need  attention.  In  one,  which  is  in- 
tended for  the  city  editor,  he  lists  all  those  which  have 
to  do  with  city  happenings  or  have  a  local  end ;  in  the 
other,  which  is  for  the  telegraph  editor,  he  lists  all 
the  out-of-town  stories.  To  a  story  which  calls  for  the 
attention  of  only  one  reporter  the  reader  gives  a  single 
line,  as  "Broome  Street  Fire,"  or  "Street  Car  Crash." 
But  scheduling  one  which  calls  for  the  service  of  sev- 
eral newsgatherers,  or  is  somewhat  involved,  he  puts 
down  a  number  of  sub-heads  under  the  main  title. 
When  he  has  listed  his  clippings  the  reader  is  nearly 
finished  with  one  part  of  his  work.  To  complete  it 
he  need  only  procure  the  "future  books,"  big  diaries 
in  which  are  kept  records  of  coming  events,  and  add 
to  his  schedules  a  list  of  the  events  marked  for  the  cur- 
rent date.  The  "future  books"  are  under  the  direct 
care  of  the  city  editor  and  the  telegraph  editor,  both  of 
whom  contribute  to  them  many  times  every  day.  His 
schedules  completed,  the  foundation  builder  is  free  to 
take  up  the  second  phase  of  his  work. 

In  the  office  of  an  evening  paper  which  issues  a 
very  early  edition  the  man  who  reads  the  papers  be- 
gins work  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  half  an 
hour  later  the  four  or  five  reporters  constituting  what 
among  newspaper  men  is  known  as  the  "gas  house 
gang,"  because  supposedly  there  are  some  gas  house 
laborers  who  start  to  work  at  2.30  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, report  for  duty.  Almost  always  these  reporters, 
who  usually  refer  to  their  period  of  work  as  the 
"lobster  trick,"  arrive  sleepy-eyed  and  out  of  humor. 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  107 

Some  of  them  have  left  their  beds  as  early  as  i  o'clock, 
and  it  is  unusual  when  they  do  not  have  tales  to  tell  of 
long  waits  for  street  cars,  and  poorly  cooked  and 
hastily  eaten  breakfasts  procured  in  miserable  excuses 
for  restaurants.  To  each  of  the  early  reporters, 
as  soon  as  he  has  hung  up  his  hat  and  dusted 
his  desk,  the  man  who  is  reading  the  papers  hands 
several  articles  which  are  to  be  rewritten.  Ordinarily 
the  reporter  is  told  only  how  long  to  make  each  article, 
but  occasionally  he  is  instructed  how  to  start  one,  and 
which  features  to  make  prominent  in  it.  So  far  as  he 
is  able,  the  reader  distributes  only  stories  which  can  be 
rewritten  without  fear  of  involving  the  paper  in  libel 
suits.  Accounts  of  fires  and  accidents  he  knows  are 
safe;  articles  having  to  do  with  arrests  he  holds  back 
when  he  has  enough  other  material  to  keep  the  re- 
porters busy;  and  attacks  on  individuals  or  companies 
he  lays  aside  for  the  attention  of  the  city  editor  and 
the  assistant  managing  editor,  unless  they  are  of  such 
moment  that  some  mention  of  them  must  be  made  in 
the  first  edition,  in  which  case  he  has  them  rewritten, 
but  marks  them  ''Wait  Orders"  so  that  they  will  not  be 
printed  unless  released  by  one  of  the  editors.  As  fast 
as  they  finish  rewriting  the  stories  given  to  them,  the 
early  reporters  call  for  new  clippings,  and  this  they 
keep  up  until  the  foundation  builder  has  exhausted  his 
supply. 

The  reporters  do  their  rewriting  at  top  speed,  and 
there  is  a  good-sized  pile  of  manuscript  waiting  by  the 
time  the  man  who  reads  the  papers  is  through  with  his 
morning  papers  and  his  schedules.  Immediately  he 
begins  to  edit  the  new  articles,  place  headings  on  them, 
and  send  them  off  to  the  composing  room,  to  be 
turned  into  type.     In  most  offices  the  early  morning 


io8  Making  a  Newspaper 

reader  and  his  reporters  make  no  distinction  between 
local  and  out-of-town  news,  but  in  some  the  assistant 
telegraph  editor,  reaching  the  office  about  the  time  that 
the  early  reporters  appear,  joins  in  the  task  of  reading 
the  morning  papers,  looking,  however,  for  out-of-town 
news  exclusively,  and,  through  with  them,  sends  in- 
structions to  a  few  of  the  correspondents  and  begins  to 
rewrite  the  important  articles  that  he  has  clipped. 

Usually,  before  the  early  reporters  are  nearly  through 
with  their  rewriting,  the  man  under  whose  direction 
they  w^ork,  answering  a  call  on  the  telephone,  finds  the 
watcher  at  Police  Headquarters  ready  to  give  several 
slips.  The  early  morning  hours  are  prolific  of  fires, 
accidents,  suicides,  and  raids  on  places  where  the  law 
is  being  broken,  and  often  the  Police  Headquarters 
man,  having  used  the  wires  judiciously,  is  able  to  give 
a  pretty  fair  account  of  the  affair  with  which  his  best 
bulletin  deals.  If  the  watcher  has  enough  facts  a  re- 
porter is  directed  to  take  them  from  him  at  once  and 
embody  them  in  an  article.  The  headquarters  watcher 
knows  that  the  man  in  charge  of  the  office  is  anxious  to 
get  a  story  which  will  bear  a  big-type  heading  and  dis- 
play on  the  front  page  of  the  first  edition,  so  often, 
not  thinking  his  story  quite  up  to  the  mark,  he  adds  a 
few  touches  of  fancy  to  improve  it.  The  reporter 
who  does  the  writing  sometimes  finding  even  the  em- 
bellished facts  insufficient  for  the  kind  of  article  he 
knows  is  desired,  and  not  knowing  of  the  headquar- 
ters man's  action,  allows  his  own  imagination  to  soar 
a  little.  The  result  is  that  days  on  which  the  first 
edition  fails  to  make  prominent  a  local  story  are  few. 
Should  the  headquarters  watcher  be  unable  to  give 
details,  reporters  are  sent  out  to  make  investigations 
as  soon  as  the  rewriting  is  completed. 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  109 

Here  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  there  are  times  when 
the  early  morning  men,  in  the  hght  of  past  experi- 
ences, confidently  expect  certain  kinds  of  news.  For 
example,  they  are  disappointed  if  they  do  not  receive 
word  of  several  suicides  on  Monday  morning;  and  most 
of  these  Monday  morning  suicides  are  laborers  or  other 
small  wage  earners.  Commonly  the  stories  are  much 
alike.  The  suicide,  receiving  his  pay  for  his  week's 
work  on  Saturday  evening,  started  to  drink  and  con- 
tinued his  debauch  over  Sunday;  waking  Monday 
morning  unnerved,  miserable,  and  penniless,  with  the 
week's  labor  in  front  of  him,  he  cut  his  throat,  or 
shot  or  hanged  himself.  Where  the  suicide  is  a 
woman,  however,  another  method  of  self-destruction  is 
generally  employed ;  drowning  and  the  swallowing  of 
carbolic  acid  are  the  common  methods  chosen  by 
w^omen.  In  the  summer,  suicides  are  always  expected 
after  a  particularly  hot  night  when  sleep  has  been  next 
to  impossible.  The  reporters  do  not  look  for  as  many 
self-murders  in  winter  as  in  summer,  and  they  are 
mildly  astonished  when  anyone  jumps  into  the  river 
while  it  is  filled  with  floating  ice,  for  most  persons 
who  are  bent  on  self-destruction  give  some  thought  as 
to  what  is  to  become  of  their  bodies. 

But  on  especially  cold  mornings  the  reporters  do 
look  forward  to  an  increase  in  the  number  of  fires,  due 
to  the  fact  that  householders  on  these  occasions,  in  their 
efforts  to  keep  warm,  heat  their  stoves  and  furnaces  to 
a  point  beyond  the  safety  limit.  The  first  real  cold 
morning  of  the  winter  invariably  sees  many  fires,  for 
the  reason  that  furnaces  and  chimneys  have  fallen  into 
disrepair  during  the  summer,  and  thus  permit  the 
escape  of  sparks  which  ignite  woodwork  or  accumu- 
lated dust  and  rubbish.     Almost  every  Saturday  morn- 


1 1  o  Making  a  Newspaper 

ingf,  too,  there  are  fires  started  in  the  crowded  districts 
in  buildings  occupied  by  orthodox  Jewish  famiHes. 
These  people,  who  are  forbidden  by  their  religion  to 
build  fires  in  their  stoves  on  this  day,  their  Sunday, 
turn  the  task  over  to  old  women  outside  of  their  faith 
who  go  about  from  house  to  house.  The  *'fire- 
lighters,"  in  a  hurry,  frequently  coax  the  fires  along 
through  the  dangerous  method  of  pouring  oil  on  them, 
and  now  and  then  one  of  them  sets  her  own  clothing 
ablaze.  When  this  happens  the  first  policeman  who 
reaches  the  scene  may  find  it  necessary  to  summon  a 
patrol  wagon  to  remove  the  body  to  the  station  house, 
which  is  not  unlikely  the  first  station  on  the  way  to  the 
Potter's  Field. 

A  person  unacquainted  with  newspaper  work  might 
think  that  rewriting  was  mere  routine,  calling  for  no 
accomplishment  other  than  ability  to  write  rapidly, 
and  that  only  the  poorest  reporters,  the  plodders,  would 
be  called  upon  to  do  this  work.  Not  so.  The  men 
who  do  this  rewriting  vvithout  instruction  must  possess 
a  lot  of  skill,  and  in  the  office  of  an  evening  newspaper 
which  issues  an  early  morning  edition  they  are  among 
the  best  on  the  staff ;  a  greenhorn  could  no  more  keep 
pace  with  them  than  he  could  with  the  managing  edi- 
tor. Where  an  early  edition  is  issued  there  is  little 
time  for  making  corrections  and  polishing,  and  the 
rewritten  articles  must  come  from  the  reporters  in  good 
shape.  In  the  offices  of  those  papers  which  do  not 
print  an  edition  until  the  middle  of  the  morning,  be- 
ginners often  assist  in  the  rewriting,  but  they  have  to 
be  told  how  to  handle  every  story  turned  over  to  them, 
which  makes  them  little  more  than  copyists. 

The  men  who  do  rewriting  always  condense,  but 
they  think  little  of  this  feature;    their  particular  aim 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  1 1 1 

Is  to  give  new  turns  to  the  stories  turned  over  to  them 
which  shall  make  them  read  like  real  news  and  not 
like  rehashed  articles.  An  experienced  newspaper 
worker  can  tell  a  rewritten  story  readily  enough,  but 
the  general  public,  it  is  presumed,  cannot,  and  if  here 
and  there  an  outsider  does  detect  the  touch  of  the  early 
morning  writer,  he  has  neither  cause  nor  opportunity 
to  announce  the  fact  sufficiently  loud  to  make  the  matter 
town  talk.  Let  it  be  supposed  that  there  is  to  be  con- 
densed into  a  quarter  of  a  column  a  story  of  a  fire 
which  occupies  a  column  in  one  of  the  morning  papers., 
The  fire,  according  to  the  printed  account,  was  in  a 
crowded  East  Side  tenement.  It  started  just  before 
midnight  from  some  unknowm  cause  and  a  panic  fol- 
lowed. The  firemen  rescued  a  score  of  persons,  but 
after  the  flames  had  been  extinguished  they  found 
three  bodies  in  the  ruins.  As  a  number  of  persons 
were  missing  it  was  feared  that  other  lives  had  been 
lost.  A  reporter  unaccustomed  to  early  morning  work, 
rewriting  this  story,  might  begin  something  like  this : 

''Three  persons  lost  their  lives  in  a  fire  in  a  tenement 
house  on  the  East  Side  last  night.  The  fire,  the  origin 
of  which  is  unknown,  occurred  in  the  five-story  brick 
house  at  1981  Norfolk  Street  and  was  extinguished 
only  after  the  building  had  been  destroyed.  During 
the  progress  of  the  blaze  the  firemen  rescued  a  score  of 
persons,  carrying  them  down  ladders  from  upper-story 
windows,  and  from  the  roof.  The  bodies  of  the  three 
persons  who  lost  their  lives  were  discovered  after  the 
flames  had  been  brought  under  control,  and  it  was 
feared  that  a  thorough  search  of  the  building  would 
result  in  the  finding  of  others.  Had  it  not  been  for  the 
prompt  action  of  the  firemen  the  death  list  would  cer- 


112  Making  a  Newspaper 

tainly  have  been  a  larger  one.  The  bodies  found  were 
those  of  Jacob  Cohen,  aged  38,  Morris  Levi,  aged  27, 
and  Isaac  Levi,  aged  53." 


The  trained  rewriter,  with  an  eye  to  the  main 
chance,  would  construct  his  story  on  a  different  plan. 
Probably  he  would  write  an  introduction  much  like  the 
following,  taking  care  to  paragraph  frequently: 

''Firemen  were  busy  to-day  searching  for  more  bodies 
in  the  ruins  of  the  tenement  house  at  1981  Norfolk 
Street,  which  was  burned  early  this  morning.  Already 
three  have  been  recovered,  and  it  is  feared  that  many 
more  will  be  found,  as  a  number  of  people  who  lived  in 
the  house  are  reported  missing  by  their  friends.  The 
bodies  taken  from  the  ruins  have  been  identified  as 
those  of : 

"Jacob  Cohen,  38  years  old. 

"Morris  Levi,  27  years  old. 

"Isaac  Levi,  53  years  old. 

"While  the  firemen  continued  their  search  crowds  of 
persons  whose  relatives  were  among  the  missing  gath- 
ered in  the  neighborhood,  and  repeatedly  the  police 
were  compelled  to  drive  away  frenzied  men  and  women 
who  insisted  on  breaking  through  the  fire  lines  to  join 
in  the  hunt. 

"The  origin  of  the  fire  is  a  mystery,  and  the  fire  mar- 
shal will  make  an  investigation.  Some  of  those  who 
visited  the  scene  to-day  declared  that  the  blaze  had 
been  started  by  incendiaries. 

"While  the  building  was  burning  the  firemen  rescued 
a  score  of  half-dressed  persons  who  had  been  trapped 
by   the    flames,    taking   them    from   upper    windows, 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  1 1  3 

and  from  the  roof.  A  panic  followed  the  discovery 
of  the  hre,  and  many  of  those  who  escaped  unaided 
reached  the  street  badly  bruised,  having  had  to  fight 
their  way  through  the  crowded  hallways  and  stair- 
cases." 

Examples  of  this  kind  of  rewriting  may  be  found 
every  day  in  the  afternoon  papers,  although  the  more 
conservative  journals  do  not  strike  so  high  a  key.  The 
rewritten  fire  story  might  appear  to  be  exaggerated 
and  overdrawn  throughout,  but  when  an  analysis  is 
made  it  is  not  so  easy  to  pick  out  any  one  sentence  and 
pronounce  it  false.  Having  reported  tenement  house 
fires  himself  the  trained  rewriter  knows  that  certain 
incidents  are  connected  with  all  of  them,  and  he  has 
only  put  down  what  he  knows  has  happened.  But  try- 
ing to  make  the  account  of  the  fire  fresh  and  so  attract- 
ive to  the  purchasers  of  his  paper,  who  w^ant  no  stale 
news,  he  has  distorted  the  facts  just  a  little.  He  has 
made  it  appear  as  if  the  firemen  were  still  searching 
the  ruins,  and  as  if  crowds  in  search  of  relatives  and 
friends  still  surrounded  the  scene  of  the  fire,  when  the 
probable  truth  is  that  the  firemen  ascertained  that  only 
three  lives  had  been  lost  a  half  hour  after  the  flames 
had  been  extinguished,  and  that  when  they  took  their 
apparatus  away  the  persons  attracted  by  curiosity  dis- 
appeared for  the  time,  making  it  possible  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  homeless  families  to  find  one  another  and 
seek  refuge  with  neighbors.  The  rewriter  has  only 
put  down,  as  if  it  were  continuing,  what  did  take 
place  in  the  past. 

An  article  which  has  to  do  with  the  destruction  of  an 
office  building  which  burned  without  loss  of  life  often 
allows  the  rewriter  to  start  as  f ollo\vs : 


114  Making  a  Newspaper 

''Great  crowds  to-day  viewed  the  ruins  of  the  Sky- 
scraper Building  which  was  burned  early  this  morn- 
ing." 

Of  course  if  the  fire  occurred  much  before  midnight 
he  cannot  use  ''early  this  morning,"  but  he  usually 
manages  to  get  "to-day"  near  the  front  of  the  opening 
paragraph. 

Occasionally  a  fire  gives  an  opportunity  for  this 
kind  of  a  rewrite: 


"That  all  of  the  so-called  fire-proof  buildings  are  not 
proof  against  fire  was  acknowledged  to-day  by  many 
builders  and  insurance  men  who  viewed  the  heaps  of 
debris  which  marked  the  site  where  the  Highup  office 
building  stood  before  it  burned  last  night.  The  fire 
started  in  the  basement,  and  within  two  hours  the 
structure  was  a  wreck." 

There  are  few  stories  to  which  the  experienced  re- 
writer  cannot  give  a  new  turn,  and  it  is  all  the  same  to 
him  whether  he  writes  about  a  fire,  a  murder,  a  busi- 
ness failure,  or  the  launching  of  a  ship.  He  can  write 
with  equal  facility : 

"The  police  are  scouring  the  city  for  clews  which 
will  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  murderers  of  James 
Smith." 

"Experts  engaged  by  the  assignee  were  to-day  set  to 
work  on  the  books  of  Brown  &  Jones,  who  failed  yes- 
terday for  $300,000." 


Starting  the  Day's  Work  1 15 

^'Hundreds  of  visitors  were  to-day  inspecting  the 
newly  launched  steamship  Jupiter,  which  was  anchored 
off  the  shipyard  of  Spars  &  Masts." 

Where  an  early  edition  is  issued  the  rewriters  aim 
to  clear  their  desks  by  6.30  o'clock,  at  which  time  the 
city  editor  appears.  Thereafter  they,  as  well  as  the 
reader,  work  under  his  direction.  The  arrival  of  the 
city  editor  is  closely  followed  by  that  of  the  assistant 
managing  editor,  who,  after  looking  over  the  material 
prepared  for  publication,  makes  up  the  first  edition, 
and  gives  the  word  to  start  the  presses.  The  assistant 
managing  editor  does  not,  however,  have  to  make  up 
every  page  before  a  paper  can  be  printed.  The  edi- 
torial page,  and  those  devoted  to  comic  pictures  and 
general  reading  not  strictly  news,  are  made  up  late  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  day  preceding  their  publication, 
and  late  at  night,  under  the  direction  of  the  sporting 
editor  or  his  assistant,  the  pages  containing  sporting 
news  are  made  ready  to  be  sent  to  the  pressroom.  At 
most,  therefore,  in  the  early  morning  the  assistant 
managing  editor  must  deal  with  three  or  four  pages. 
The  reader  who  began  the  day's  w^ork  is  allowed  to 
leave  at  9  o'clock,  and  the  reporters  who  have  done 
early  morning  rewriting  customarily  get  away  an  hour 
later.  When  a  city  editor  reaches  his  office  at  6.30 
o'clock,  he  makes  way  for  his  assistant  about  noon.  In 
those  offices  which  do  not  issue  a  paper  until  the  morn- 
ing is  well  advanced  the  reader  begins  work  at  6 
o'clock  and  is  joined  within  half  an  hour  by  the  early 
reporters,  w^ho,  like  him,  are  permitted  to  quit  at  3 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  In  these  offices  the  city 
editor,  the  telegraph  editor,  the  copy  readers,  and  the 
majority  of  the  reporters  start  their  day  at  8  o'clock. 


1 1 6  Making  a  Newspaper 

Where  an  edition  is  issued  late  in  the  evening  the  re- 
porters are  divided  into  squads  which  work  late  turn 
and  turn  about. 

On  a  morning  newspaper  the  day  is  started  by  the 
assistant  city  editor,  who  reaches  the  office  at  lo  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  immediately  begins  to  read  and 
clip  from  the  rival  morning  papers  and  the  editions  of 
the  evening  papers  then  procurable.  The  city  editor 
arrives  at  1 1  o'clock  and  about  an  hour  later  the  report- 
ers begin  to  appear.  Having  plenty  of  time  before  him 
and  a  larger  force  of  reporters  than  is  maintained  by 
an  evening  newspaper,  the  city  editor  of  a  morning 
newspaper  is  not  compelled  to  set  men  to  rewriting. 
Wanting  something  written  about  an  occurrence  he 
turns  the  matter  over  to  a  reporter,  who  is  supposed 
to  make  a  thorough  investigation  on  his  own  account. 
If  the  reporter  chooses  to  glean  his  facts  from  the 
evening  papers  he  does  so  at  his  own  risk  and  keeps 
his  own  counsel. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHAT  THE  CITY  EDITOR  DOES 

Although  every  newspaper  worker,  be  the  place 
he  occupies  high  or  low,  has  plenty  of  difficulties  with 
which  to  contend,  there  is  none  who  has  more  than  the 
city  editor,  the  man  who  directs  the  gathering  of  the 
local  news  and  supervises  its  preparation  for  publica- 
tion. Above  him  are  the  owner,  the  editor-in-chief, 
the  managing  editor  and  his  assistant,  and  actually,  al- 
though not  theoretically,  the  business  manager.  Under 
him  are  all  the  local  newsgatherers  and  the  local  copy 
readers.  And  both  those  above  him  and  those  below 
him  look  upon  him  as  a  fair  mark.  The  managing 
editor,  when  anything  goes  wrong  in  the  local  depart- 
ment, when  a  piece  of  news  is  missed  or  when  a  poorly 
written  or  libelous  story,  or  a  weak  heading  gets  into 
the  paper,  goes  to  him,  either  of  his  own  accord  or  act- 
ing on  a  suggestion,  and  without  beating  around  the 
bush,  demands  an  explanation.  The  reporter  who 
does  not  know  how  to  get  the  news  or  how  to  write 
what  he  has  got,  just  as  promptly  goes  to  the  city  editor 
and  asks  for  detailed  instructions.  It  is  the  city  edi- 
tor's duty,  he  intimates,  to  set  him  right.  Then  if 
having  been  told  how  to  proceed  he  comes  to  grief  he 
declares  vehemently,  when  called  to  account,  that  the 
fault  is  not  his,  as  he  simply  followed  directions.  The 
copy  readers,  who  edit  the  articles  written  by  the  re- 
porters, appeal  to  the  city  editor  on  a  thousand  pre- 

117 


1 1 8  Making  a  Newspaper 

texts,  and  are  delighted  when  they  can  force  him  to 
commit  himself.  They  would  like  to  have  him  pass 
judgment  on  everything  they  do. 

The  duties  of  the  city  editor,  whose  field  embraces 
the  whole  city,  and,  in  some  offices,  all  territory  within 
a  radius  of  lOO  miles  of  it,  when  viewed  closely  are 
seen  to  be  decidedly  complex.  First,  he  must  find  out 
where  there  is  news  to  gather,  and  this  means  that  he 
must  keep  his  watchers  alive  and  that  he  must  be  able 
to  tell  just  what  is  news  and  possess  the  ability  to 
weigh  whatever  comes  to  his  notice;  next,  he  must 
direct  the  work  of  gathering  the  news;  and  last,  he 
must  get  the  news  into  the  paper  in  good  shape,  read- 
able and  accurate.  How  he  is  to  perform  his  multi- 
tudinous duties  is  for  him  to  determine,  and  should 
he  fail  it  is  not  sufficient  for  him  to  declare  that  he  has 
not  half  enough  reporters ;  that  many  of  those  he  does 
have  are  incompetent;  or  that  his  copy  readers  fall 
far  short  of  the  mark.  Making  one  of  these  pleas  or 
almost  any  other,  he  is  quickly  told  that  it  would  be 
nothing  more  than  play  to  be  city  editor  under  ideal 
conditions,  and  that  a  cheaper  man  would  hold  his  place 
were  it  not  realized  that  there  were  a  few  obstacles  to 
be  overcome. 

Because  there  is  usually  more  news  offered  than 
can  be  printed,  the  city  editor  must  be  able  at  any  time 
to  sift  out  accurately  and  quickly  the  unimportant 
matter  which  may  with  safety  be  thrown  away.  But 
almost  as  important  is  it  that  he  possess  the  skill  to 
furnish,  when  the  necessity  arises,  substitutes  for  news 
so  cleverly  gilded  that  the  general  public  cannot  detect 
the  counterfeit,  for  now  and  then  there  comes  a  day 
when  the  world  apparently  goes  to  sleep,  the  good  and 
the  bad  together.     Ordinarily,   when  empty  columns 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  119 

are  filled  under  pressure,  a  paper  makes  thrilling  ap- 
peals for  more  schoolhouses,  a  better  water  supply, 
cleaner  streets,  and  a  more  efficient  police  force.  But 
a  particularly  keen-witted  city  editor  avoids  these  old- 
time  wants  and  enables  his  paper  to  call  for  things  not 
so  often  before  demanded.  The  city  editor  who  is  com- 
pelled to  work  short-handed,  and  a  good  many  of  them 
are,  is  frequently  driven  to  another  expedient,  that  of 
having  one  man  generalize  and  so  gloss  over  the  ab- 
sence of  facts  W'hich  should  be  presented  and  w^ould 
be,  were  there  available  men  to  collect  them.  For 
example,  when  a  heavy  snowstorm  strikes  the  city, 
there  is  new^s  to  be  gathered  at  every  railroad  station, 
at  every  ferry-house,  at  the  offices  of  the  men  who  will 
have  to  superintend  the  clearing  of  the  streets,  and  at 
several  other  places.  Were  they  on  hand  the  city 
editor  would  detail  a  half-dozen  newsgatherers  to 
report  the  snowstorm.  But  not  having  them  he  sends 
one  or  two  men  out  to  gather  facts,  and  sets  another 
who  has  a  vivid  imagination  at  work  in  the  office 
to  write  page  after  page  of  what  newspaper  men  call 
*'guff."  In  half  the  time  it  would  take  him  to  go  up- 
town and  ascertain  wdiether  the  trains  from  Boston 
were  late,  the  office  wTiter  will  turn  out  a  column-long 
story,  telling  about  the  shivering  crowds  walking 
through  the  streets,  the  woes  of  the  suburbanites  de- 
layed in  reaching  the  city,  the  suffering  of  the  horses 
compelled  to  pull  heavy  loads  through  drifts,  and 
maybe  the  fairyland-like  appearance  of  the  snow- 
festooned  trees  in  the  parks.  This  story,  adorned 
here  and  there  by  a  fact  procured  by  the  reporters  sent 
out  of  the  office,  the  hard-pressed  city  editor  must 
print  as  a  report  of  the  storm.  On  an  exceedingly  hot 
day  the  office  w-riter  tells  about  the  crowds  around  the 


I20  Making  a  Newspaper 

soda  water  fountains,  and  the  fat  man  with  the  wilted 
collar;  and  when  there  is  a  financial  panic  he  never  fails 
to  harp  on  the  white-faced  brokers.  A  resourceful 
city  editor  can  make  suggestions  almost  without  end  in 
an  emergency. 

If  the  city  editor  of  a  morning  paper  is  a  quick 
thinker,  resourceful,  and  cool-headed,  the  affairs  of 
his  office  will,  of  course,  proceed  much  more  smoothly 
than  they  would  otherwise.  But  the  city  editor  of  an 
evening  publication  must  be  all  these  things  to  be  of 
much  worth,  for  in  his  establishment  there  is  a  con- 
stant rush  and  an  unending  strain  on  the  nerves.  He 
must  keep  himself  well  in  hand,  no  matter  what  goes 
wrong,  and  be  able  to  act  without  hesitation,  for  the 
man  who  can  get  out  an  extra  edition  within  fifteen 
minutes  of  the  time  he  hears  of  the  event  which 
makes  it  necessary,  is  in  the  evening  newspaper 
world  considered  far  more  ef^cient  than  the  man 
who  requires  seventeen  minutes  to  get  the  same 
result. 

The  rush  in  a  morning  newspaper  office  comes  only 
once  in  twenty-four  hours  and  is  not,  even  at  its  height, 
worse  than  that  which  prevails  in  an  evening  paper 
office  all  day  long.  Yet  the  city  editor  of  a  morning 
paper  enjoys  no  easy  berth.  He  has  more  time  in 
which  to  do  his  work,  and  he  has  more  copy  readers  and 
reporters  than  has  the  evening  paper  city  editor,  but  to 
offset  these  advantages,  more  is  required  of  him.  It  is 
expected  that  his  reporters,  while  making  their  investi- 
gations, will  dig  out  minute  as  well  as  main  facts,  and 
that  they  will  write  smooth,  well-reading  stories  which 
will  appear  in  the  paper  unmarked  by  the  slips  that  tell 
of  haste;  and  when  there  is  failure  in  any  particular 
the  managing  editor  is  quick  to  complain.     Held  to  a 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  121 

high  standard,  the  morning  paper  city  editor  must  re- 
main a  particularly  exacting  critic. 

Whether  it  is  a  morning  or  an  evening  publication 
on  which  he  is  employed,  the  city  editor  always  begins 
his  day's  work  by  inspecting  the  schedule  prepared  by 
the  man  who  reads  the  papers,  and  follows  this,  in  case 
there  are  no  rewritten  stories  for  him  to  look  over,  by 
reading  fairly  closely  the  clippings  on  which  the 
schedule  is  based.  The  schedule  and  the  clippings  com- 
bined give  him  a  clear  idea  of  the  news  in  sight,  and 
after  making  any  additions  to  the  schedule  which  sug- 
gest themselves,  he  is  ready  to  begin  assigning  his 
reporters.  A  competent  city  editor  has  all  of  his  men 
accurately  measured.  He  knows  which  ones  are  good 
at  unraveling  mysteries,  which  are  only  fair  at  finding 
news,  but  can  write  entertainingly  about  what  they  do 
find;  which  are  good  at  humorous  writing;  which,  ex- 
celling in  no  particular  line,  can  always  be  depended 
upon  to  do  fairly  well,  whatever  their  task ;  which  have 
a  special  knowledge  of  business,  and  are  therefore 
fitted  to  report  failures  or  the  starting  of  new  ventures ; 
w^hich  understand  mechanics ;  which  have  studied  medi- 
cine or  law;  in  short,  he  can  tell  on  what  kind  of  an 
incident  each  man  can  do  his  best,  and  therefore,  which 
man  can  best  handle  any  story  that  is  to  be  reported. 

When  he  distributes  his  newsgatherers  to  the  best 
advantage,  a  city  editor  proves  himself  competent  in 
one  part  of  his  work  at  least,  for  it  can  easily  be  seen 
that  a  staff  of  excellent  reporters  might  be  assigned  in 
such  a  manner  that  not  one  of  them  would  be  able  to  do 
his  best.  The  prize  humorous  writer,  if  he  were  un- 
familiar with  police  work,  would  make  a  sorry  spectacle 
of  himself  and  his  paper  were  he  compelled  to  match 
his  wits  against  those  of  the  rival  reporters  and  the 


122  Making  a  Newspaper 

detectives  engaged  in  trying  to  clear  up  a  murder  mys- 
tery, and  he  would  probably  do  almost  as  poorly  were 
he  sent  to  report  the  trial  trip  of  a  new  warship.  The 
reporter  trained  only  to  collect  the  news  of  the  steam- 
ships and  the  shipping  offices  would  certainly  flounder 
were  he  detailed  to  report  a  wedding,  and  the  man  who 
customarily  gathered  court  news,  were  he  sent  to 
report  a  big  fire,  might  do  even  worse. 

Among  the  New  York  newspaper  workers  a  story 
is  told  which  well  illustrates  the  possibilities  of  a  mix- 
up  in  the  reporters'  room,  A  man,  who  had  had  no 
experience  even  as  a  reporter,  was  through  some  mis- 
understanding taken  from  the  business  office  of  a  cer- 
tain paper  and  installed  as  its  city  editor.  On  the 
morning  that  he  assumed  the  duties  of  his  new  place  he 
assem.bled  the  newsgatherers,  and  having  asked  each 
man  to  hand  in  his  name  written  on  a  slip  of  paper, 
arranged  the  slips  alphabetically  and  began  to  give  out 
the  assignments.  The  reporter  whose  name  happened 
to  come  first,  a  novice,  was  detailed  to  report  a  con- 
ference of  political  leaders,  the  important  event  of  the 
day;  one  of  the  sporting  editor's  assistants  was  told 
to  investigate  a  highway  robbery,  and  a  court  reporter 
was  instructed  to  report  a  public  trial  of  a  newly  in- 
vented fire-engine.  Scarce  a  man  got  the  kind  of  work 
to  which  he  was  accustomed,  but  grasping  the  humor 
of  the  situation  they  all  kept  quiet,  until  the  acknowl- 
edged leader  of  the  staff,  an  excellent  newsgatherer 
and  clever  writer,  whose  name  happened  to  come  at 
the  end  of  the  list,  was  ordered  to  look  into  the  rumor 
that  a  little  girl  living  in  the  outlying  district  above 
the  Harlem  River  had  been  bitten  by  a  mad  dog.  Then 
there  was  an  explosion.  The  new  city  editor,  instead 
of  becoming  angry,  asked  for  an  explanation,  and  when 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  123 

it  was  forthcoming-,  with  the  aid  of  the  copy  readers 
made  a  redistribution  that  was  more  judicious.  Before 
the  day  was  over,  too,  he  sought  an  interview  with  the 
owner  of  the  paper,  and  after  explaining  that  a  mistake 
had  been  made  was,  much  to  his  rehef,  allowed  to  go 
back  to  his  old  place  in  the  business  office. 

Customarily  the  city  editor  deals  with  the  department 
men  first.  Summoning  them  one  at  a  time,  he  tells 
them  of  any  news  that  is  expected  to  develop  in  their 
territory  and  gets  them  out  of  the  office  without  delay. 
Then  he  turns  to  the  general  workers.  These  men  have 
served  apprenticeships  in  the  ranks  of  the  department 
workers  and  most  of  them  are  capable  of  reporting 
in  a  passable  manner  anything  from  a  fire  to  a  wed- 
ding, although  each  one  has  a  specialty.  To  each  re- 
porter he  sends  out  the  city  editor  hands  the  clippings 
having  to  do  with  the  story  that  is  to  be  investigated, 
and  frequently  he  points  out  features  wdiich  he  desires 
shall  receive  special  attention.  As  the  reporters  are 
assigned  the  city  editor  writes  their  names  on  his 
schedule  opposite  the  stories  on  which  he  details  them, 
so  that  at  any  moment  he  can  tell  on  what  task  each 
man  is  engaged,  and  to  some  extent  how  soon  he  may 
be  expected  to  reappear.  In  an  evening  newspaper 
office  three  or  four  good  men  are  retained  to  write 
stories  sent  in  over  the  telephone  or  submitted  by  the 
newsgathering  association.  In  a  morning  paper  office 
two  good  men  are  held  for  emergencies  and  to  write 
from  the  telephone;  one,  who,  after  having  had  an 
afternoon  assignment,  works  in  the  office  from  8  o'clock 
until  midnight  or  a  little  after,  is  called  the  "short  wait 
man";  the  other,  who  does  not  report  for  duty  until 
6  o'clock  and  remains  until  3  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
is  known  as  the  ''long  wait  man." 


124  Making  a  Newspaper 

A  reporter,  when  he  returns  from  an  assignment, 
immediately  goes  to  the  city  editor  and  makes  an  oral 
report,  explaining  briefly  but  comprehensively  what  he 
has  accomplished,  wdiereupon  the  city  editor,  weigh- 
ing the  story  and  giving  a  thought  to  the  pressure  on 
the  paper's  columns,  tells  him  how  long  he  shall  make 
his  article,  sometimes  adding  a  few  words  relative  to^ 
the  points  that  are  to  be  made  prominent  in  it.  In  the 
language  of  the  newspaper  offices,  'Svhat  the  city  editor 
says  about  a  story  goes."  Asking  for  half  a  column 
he  expects  neither  more  nor  less  and  he  tolerates  no 
presumption;  the  newsgatherers,  are,  however,  ex- 
pected to  speak  up  if  they  think  that  their  oral  reports 
have  not  been  clearly  understood.  If  there  is  any  de- 
parture from  his  instructions,  the  city  editor  is  in  a 
position  to  discover  it  quickly,  for  every  article  written 
by  the  reporters  goes  to  him  for  its  first  inspection. 
In  a  morning  paper  office  most  of  the  articles  are  car- 
ried to  the  city  editor's  desk  complete;  in  the  office  of 
an  evening  paper  a  great  many  of  them  reach  him  a 
page  or  two  at  a  time,  for  where  editions  follow  one 
another  closely  the  stories  must  be  hurried  through  to 
the  composing  room  without  delay.  Not  often  does 
the  city  editor  give  an  article  written  by  a  trustworthy 
reporter  a  careful  reading.  Commonly  he  only  glances 
through  it.  But  this  reading  means  much  to  the  re- 
porter, for  finding  a  weak  introduction  or  several  long, 
involved  sentences,  or  discovering  that  instructions 
have  been  disobeyed,  the  editor  hands  the  article  back 
to  be  rewritten.  The  articles  which  come  up  to  re- 
quirements he  passes  over  to  the  copy  readers  to  be 
edited,  occasionally  calling  their  attention  to  an  error 
or  an  awkw^ard  sentence,  but  more  often  contenting 
himself  with  telling  them  how  long  the  articles  are  to 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  125 

be.  In  an  evening  paper  office  there  are  anywhere 
from  three  to  seven  local  copy  readers  employed. 
They  sit  in  the  reporters'  room,  grouped  around  a  large 
desk,  and  where  many  editions  are  printed  the  assistant 
city  editor  shares  their  desk  w^ith  them  and  acts  as  a 
head  copy  reader.  Usually  the  city  editor  of  an 
evening  paper  has  his  desk  in  the  reporters'  room,  close 
to  the  copy  readers.  On  a  morning  paper  there  are 
often  as  many  as  a  dozen  local  copy  readers,  and  gen- 
erally the  city  editor  has  a  private  office. 

Wherever  he  sits,  the  city  editor  keeps  close  watch 
on  the  telephone  on  his  desk,  for  through  it  he  is  kept 
in  touch  with  all  parts  of  the  city.  It  yields  him 
dozens  of  small  prizes  every  hour,  and  he  is  never  sure 
when  its  bell  rings  that  it  is  not  going  to  bestow  on 
him  a  story  which  will  far  outshine  anything  in  his 
experience.  Knowing  how  the  reporters  at  Police 
Headquarters  and  elsewhere  watch  for  news,  one  can 
understand  how  the  city  editor  looks  upon  his  tele- 
phone. Each  watcher,  from  a  great  mass  of  material, 
gleans  a  few  gems.  From  the  city  editor's  telephone 
come  only  gems,  or  at  least,  what  to  the  watchers  look 
like  gems. 

It  might  be  thought  that  having  got  all  of  his  re- 
porters out  of  the  office  promptly,  each  one  bent  on  an 
errand  he  was  well  qualified  to  perform,  the  city  editor 
would  feel  relieved.  If  he  does,  it  is  to  a  very  limited 
extent,  for  his  real  worries,  he  w-ell  knows,  are  to  come. 
About  the  time  that  his  last  man  has  reached  the  street 
and  has  become  lost  in  the  crowd,  the  telephone  bell 
rings  and  one  of  the  watchers  gives  notice  of  a  fire  or 
an  accident.  No  sooner  has  the  city  editor  added  the 
item  to  his  schedule  than  he  has  to  turn  to  listen  to  a 
question  asked  by  a  copy  reader  who  is  editing  an  article 


I  26  Making  a  Newspaper 

handed  in  by  a  reporter  who,  late  the  day  before,  had 
been  assigned  to  get  an  interview;  the  copy  reader  is 
perhaps  a  httle  dubious  about  the  accuracy  of  the  inter- 
view, and  is  wilhng  to  shift  the  responsibiHty  for  its 
appearance.  The  city  editor  sets  him  right  and  is 
about  to  pick  up  a  letter  just  laid  on  his  desk  when  the 
telephone  rings  again.  This  time  one  of  the  police- 
court  reporters  is  on  the  wire  with  an  important  story 
about  a  burglar}^  One  of  the  men  kept  in  the  office 
is  directed  to  take  the  facts  and  ''write  them  for  all 
they  are  worth."  Next  comes  word  from  the  coroners' 
office  that  a  w^ll-known  man  has  died  suddenly,  and 
the  city  editor,  after  adding  this  to  his  schedule,  and 
glancing  at  the  clock,  calls  another  inside  man  and 
tells  him  to  look  in  the  "morgue"  and  see  if  he  can  find 
material  enough  for  a  quarter  of  a  column  obituary 
notice.  The  "morgue,"  it  might  be  explained,  is  the 
office  cabinet-repository  for  clippings.  Usually  it  is 
under  the  care  of  the  assistant  city  editor  or  one  of  the 
copy  readers,  and  into  it  go  all  clippings  that  seem 
to  be  worth  preserving.  The  contributions  are  filed 
in  labeled  envelopes  arranged  in  lettered  drawers,  so 
that  it  takes  only  a  few  moments  to  find  anything 
desired,  provided,  of  course  there  is  anything  on  hand. 
Frequently,  when  it  becomes  known  that  a  prominent 
man  is  dangerously  ill,  his  obituary  is  written  and  filed, 
and  in  a  great  many  offices  the  lives  of  the  President, 
the  Pope,  the  King  of  England,  and  the  Czar  of  Russia 
are  kept  "standing"  in  type. 

Probably,  wdiile  the  city  editor  is  wondering  how 
he  is  going  to  cover  the  new  items  on  his  schedule, 
the  telephone  rings  again  and  he  hears  of  a  murder, 
and  this  is  perhaps  followed  by  word  of  a  street  car 
collision  in  which  several  persons  were  hurt.    With  so 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  127 

many  calls  waiting  for  attention,  it  is  little  wonder  if 
the  city  editor  becomes  restless.  Sometimes,  deciding 
to  take  a  chance,  he  telephones  one  of  the  watchers  to 
leave  his  station  long  enough  to  get  a  story  in  his 
neighborhood,  but  only  in  a  grave  emergency  will  he 
send  out  the  men  held  at  the  office  to  write  news  re- 
ceived over  the  telephone.  Their  absence  throws  addi- 
tional burdens  on  the  copy  readers,  who  at  best  work 
under  pressure,  and  no  matter  what  news  is  calling  he 
has  no  assurance  that  the  next  minute  will  not  find 
him  listening  to  far  more  insistent  calls. 

If  his  paper  prints  pictures,  and  the  use  of  illustra- 
tions is  growing,  for  it  has  been  proved  beyond  a  doubt 
that  they  are  acceptable  to  readers,  the  city  editor's 
cares  are  increased,  for  there  dare  be  no  delay  in  getting 
the  photographers  and  artists  into  action.  If  there  is 
an  accident  a  reporter  reaching  the  scene  an  hour,  or 
for  that  matter,  several  hours  later,  can  find  plenty 
of  persons  ready  to  give  him  the  information  he  de- 
sires; it  makes  no  difference  to  him  that  the  injured 
persons  have  been  taken  to  the  hospitals  and  that  the 
wreckage  has  been  clearfd  away.  Not  so  wdth  the 
photographer.  His  camera  will  record  only  what  is  be- 
fore it,  and  a  word  painting  is  of  no  more  service  to  him 
than  w^ould  be  a  recitation  of  a  multiplication  table. 
Arriving  too  late  the  photographer  might  almost  as 
well  not  arrive  at  all,  for  a  picture  of  a  quiet  street, 
even  bearing  the  explanation  that  the  street  has  re- 
cently been  the  scene  of  an  atrocious  murder  or  a 
collision  in  which  a  dozen  persons  were  hurt,  is  far 
from  exciting;  nor  will  a  picture  of  a  wnde  expanse  of 
water  attract  much  notice,  although  the  text  announce 
that  under  the  water  lies  what  remains  of  a  wrecked 
steamboat.     The  pencil  artists  are  not  bound  as  are 


128  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  photographers,  for  they  can  make  use  of  descrip- 
tions, and  in  emergencies  call  upon  their  imaginations, 
but  with  them,  too,  the  best  results  are  attained  when 
they  view  the  scene  while  it  contains  the  things  that 
make  it  worthy  of  attention..  Where  a  paper  makes  a 
specialty  of  illustrations,  the  city  editor  searches  every 
bit  of  intelligence  that  comes  to  him  for  pictorial  pos- 
sibilities, and  confronted  by  big  news,  may  assign  his 
artists  and  photographers  before  he  does  his  reporters. 
The  highest-class  picture-makers,  the  cartoonists,  are 
accountable  not  to  the  city  editor  but  to  the  managing 
editor.  Commonly,  they  plan  as  well  as  execute  their 
drawings,  getting  their  ideas  through  extended  and 
careful  newspaper  reading,  but  the  managing  editor's 
suggestions  they  have  to  accept  as  commands,  and  they 
have  to  submit  all  their  w^ork  for  his  inspection.  Usu- 
ally they  submit  rough  sketches  to  him  first,  and  try 
again  if  he  disapproves  of  their  prospective  pictures. 

Every  city  editor  is  glad  to  get  his  men  back  into  the 
office,  but  where  an  evening  paper  is  published  the 
city  editor  keeps  a  particularly  close  watch  on  the  door. 
From  the  time  a  reporter  reaches  the  office  on  his  re- 
turn from  an  assignment,  not  more  than  a  minute 
elapses  until  he  is  at  work  at  his  desk,  provided,  of 
course,  that  he  has  gathered  information  worth  pub- 
lishing; and  wishing  to  keep  in  the  good  graces  of  the 
man  who  directs  the  newsgatherers,  he  writes  at  good 
speed.  But  however  fast  a  man  is  turning  out  copy  he 
is  not  surprised  if  the  city  editor  begs  him  to  hurry. 
Half  the  time  a  reporter  on  an  evening  paper,  writing 
a  long  article,  is  told  before  he  is  anywhere  nearly 
through,  that  another  story  is  waiting  for  him,  and 
often  he  is  informed  what  his  next  assignment  will 
be  before  he  has  begun  to  write  the  story  he  has  on 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  129 

hand.  The  half  hour  that  precedes  the  printing  of  an 
edition  finds  the  city  editor  hurrying  all  the  reporters 
in  the  ofiice,  and  fervently  wishing  that  those  who  are 
out  on  assignments  would  return,  and  it  goes  hard  with 
the  man  who  offends.  The  experienced  workers  would 
as  soon  think  of  jumping  out  of  the  window  as  they 
would  of  crossing  the  city  editor  at  this  time. 

As  fast  as  the  reporters  on  an  afternoon  paper  finish 
writing,  they  are  dispatched  on  fresh  assignments,  and 
in  the  course  of  a  day  one  man  will  often  report  a  half- 
dozen  stories.  As  the  day  advances  news  pours  into 
the  ofiice  more  and  more  rapidly.  The  watchers  send 
in  reports  at  frequent  intervals,  and  from  those  men 
who  both  watch  and  write  there  comes  a  steady  stream 
of  manuscript.  Early  in  the  morning  almost  any  story 
is  good  enough  to  get  a  place  in  the  paper.  Late  in  the 
day  routine  news  is  discarded  and  the  men  engaged 
on  stories  which  must  be  printed  are  instructed  to 
"keep  it  down  to  the  bone."  The  poorer  stories  of  the 
morning,  and  most  of  those  rewritten  from  the  morn- 
ing papers,  are  thrown  out  of  the  paper  altogether 
w^hen  the  flood  comes,  or  are  moved  to  the  inside  pages, 
the  number  of  pages  usually  growing  with  the  suc- 
cessive editions. 

In  a  morning  newspaper  office  the  day  city  editor 
directs  the  reporters  throughout  the  afternoon,  but  soon 
after  6  o'clock  he  makes  way  for  the  night  city  editor, 
wdiose  work  more  closely  resembles  that  of  the  city 
editor  of  an  evening  paper.  The  day  city  editor  telly 
the  reporters  who  return  from  assignments  in  the  after- 
noon how  long  they  are  to  make  their  articles,  but  he 
rarely  edits  any  manuscript,  contenting  himself  with 
laying  the  stories  handed  in  aside  for  the  attention  of 
the  copy  readers  who  come  on  duty  with  the  night  city 


130  Making  a  Newspaper 

editor  and  work  under  his  direction  until  the  paper  goes 
to  press  for  the  first  edition.  How  long  the  morning 
paper  reporters  remain  on  duty  depends  upon  the 
amount  of  news  to  be  gathered.  Under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances each  man  gets  only  two  assignments,  one  in 
the  afternoon  and  one  in  the  evening,  and  commonly, 
half  the  reporters  are  through  work  by  midnight.  The 
night  city  editor  leaves  after  the  second  edition  has 
been  made  up,  and  with  him  go  the  reporters  still  in  the 
office  with  the  exception  of  the  long  wait  man,  who, 
with  a  copy  reader,  remains  until  the  last  edition  comes 
from  the  presses. 

The  copy  readers,  who  prepare  for  publication  and 
write  headings  for  the  articles  written  by  the  report- 
ers, are  the  unpopular  men  and  the  drudges  of  the 
new^spaper  business.  The  incompetent  reporters  talk 
about  them  behind  their  backs  because  they  will  not 
pass  their  poorly  written  stories;  the  crack  reporters, 
especially  txiose  working  at  space  rates,  call  them 
plodders  and  growl  at  them  when  they  dare  to  exercise 
their  right  to  prune,  and  the  city  editor  censures  them 
for  not  rei  xting  more  stories,  allowing  errors  to  get 
past  the  1,  c.nd  not  making  the  space  writers  keep  more 
closely  to  the  facts.  A  copy  reader,  who  must  be  able 
to  decipher  any  writing,  is  expected  to  cut  out  un- 
necessar}^  words  and  hackneyed  expressions,  catch  all 
errors  of  fact,  omissions,  and  contradictions,  cut  to 
size  desired  by  the  city  editor,  correct  poor  English 
and  spelling,  arrange  stories  so  that  the  facts  follow 
one  another  in  their  logical  order,  punctuate,  rewrite 
weak  introductions,  and  embellish  generally.  In  brief, 
he  is  required  to  turn  whatever  comes  to  him  into  a 
smooth-reading  story,  although  it  may  be  the  initial 
effort  of  a  novice;  and  he  is  called  to  account  when- 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  131 

ever  he  allows  even  a  minute  error  to  get  into  the 
paper.  It  is  easy  enough  for  a  copy  reader  to  keep 
a  reporter  from  telling  a  paper's  readers  in  the  end  of 
a  long  article  that  a  woman  was  rescued  by  the  firemen 
from  the  fifth  floor  of  a  building  described  at  the  be- 
ginning as  only  four  stories  high,  but  almost  every 
day,  try  as  he  will,  he  allows  something  to  escape  his 
vigilance,  and  in  some  offices  the  copy  readers  accept 
their  daily  reprimands  as  a  matter  of  course.  In  these 
establishments  there  are  so  many  words  and  expressions 
that  are  forbidden  that  it  keeps  a  copy  reader  awake  at 
nig.its  trying  to  remember  them;  and  it  is  a  clever 
writer  who  can  put  on  paper,  without  offending,  what 
he  has  to  say.  It  may  here  be  remarked  that  when 
some  purist  writes  a  letter  to  an  editor  to  call  atten- 
tion to  a  ''split  infinitive"  or  to  make  fun  of  an  awk- 
ward expression,  he  wounds  a  copy  reader,  and  a  copy 
reader  only. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  articles  that  al'e  edited  by 
a  copy  reader  on  an  evening  paper  reach  him  page  by 
page,  and  frequently  a  man  finds  himself  engaged  on 
three  or  four  stories  at  one  time.  He  may^get  a  page 
of  one  dealing  with  a  fire,  then  a  page  i  ^f  : another 
telling  about  a  murder,  perhaps  two  that  are  part  of  an 
account  of  a  political  meeting,  and  after  another  page 
of  the  fire  story,  three  or  four  more  that  close  the  report 
of  a  wedding.  The  worker  who  cannot  at  one  time 
handle  three  stories  which  reach  him  page  by  page,  and 
send  the  headings  after  them,  is  out  of  place  in  an 
evening  newspaper  establishment  and  is  not  tolerated. 
While  a  copy  reader  is  reading  stories  piecemeal  he 
requires  the  reporters  to  place  "catch  lines"  as  well 
as  numbers  on  their  pages,  whereupon  they  come  to 
him  "3  Fire,"  "7  Wedding,"  "4  Political,"  and  so  on. 


132  Making  a  Newspaper 

Sending  a  heading  to  the  composing  room  after  a 
story  instead  of  with  the  first  page  a  copy  reader  marks 
it  "1-2  Fire,"  or  ''1-2  Wedding,"  and  the  composing- 
room  foreman  or  one  of  his  assistants  sees  that  it  is 
rightly  placed.  On  articles  which,  while  brief,  are  of 
more  than  ordinary  news  value,  bulletins  of  accidents 
for  example,  the  copy  readers  place  marks  which  in- 
struct the  printers  to  ''double  lead,"  that  is,  by  inserting 
leads  widen  the  spaces  between  the  lines  of  type. 
Articles  thus  treated  appearing  in  the  paper  always 
catch  the  eye ;  at  first  glance  they  look  as  if  they  were 
printed  in  larger  type  than  are  the  other  stories. 

While  they  are  held  to  strict  account  for  errors  and 
poor  w-riting  that  get  past  them,  the  copy  readers 
are  censured  if  they  hold  articles,  no  matter  how  poorly 
constructed  or  how  full  of  errors  they  are,  for  a  much 
longer  time  than  would  be  required  to  read  them  were 
they  perfect;  the  supposition  apparently  is  that  if  the 
copy  readers  are  capable,  and  pay  strict  attention  to 
their  work,  they  can  effect  miraculous  transformations 
by  a  few  sweeps  of  their  pencils.  At  any  rate  every 
city  editor  adheres  to  the  principle  that  anyone  can 
find  fault  and  rewrite,  and  that  a  ''desk  man,"  to  be 
w^orth  keeping,  must  be  able  to  reconstruct  without 
rewriting.  The  result  is  that  a  copy  reader  encounter- 
ing an  especially  poorly  written  article,  unless  he  thinks 
the  news  important,  asks  leave  to  throw  it  into  the 
wastebasket.  The  city  editor,  should  he  be  doubtful, 
takes  the  article  again  and  examines  it  more  carefully 
than  he  did  at  first.  Then,  not  able  to  suggest  treat- 
ment which  will  fit  it  for  publication,  he  throws  it 
away  himself  or  has  it  rewritten  by  the  reporter  who 
wrote  it  originally,  or  if  he  is  out  of  reach,  by  some 
other  reporter. 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  133 

Advance  copies  of  speeches  are  sent  to  the  printers 
as  quickly  as  they  are  edited,  but  the  copy  readers 
insure  against  tlieir  getting  into  the  paper  ahead  of 
time  by  marking  them  "Wait  Orders."  Turned  into 
type,  speeches  thus  labeled  are  set  aside  in  the  com- 
posing room  until  the  city  editor  releases  them,  after 
having  been  informed  that  their  delivery  has  been 
begun.  Coming  to  the  office  by  telegraph  the  message 
giving  permission  for  the  printing  usually  reads,  "Re- 
lease Blank's  speech."  And  here  a  few  words  may 
be  devoted  to  an  explanation  of  what  newspaper  men 
call  the  "bulletin."  If  out  of  the  city  on  an  assign- 
ment a  reporter,  after  having  written  and  filed  in  the 
telegraph  office  a  long  story  (and  in  cases  of  this  kind 
the  story  is  sent  into  the  newspaper  office  direct  over 
a  ware  "made"  for  the  occasion),  comes  into  possession 
of  intelligence  which  it  is  desirable  should  be  com- 
municated to  his  paper  without  delay,  he  embodies 
the  information  in  a  brief  message,  and  heading  it 
"Bulletin,"  has  the  operator  sandwich  it  in  between  two 
sentences  of  the  main  story.  These  bulletins,  which 
are  preceded  by  a  word  of  warning,  the  receiving 
operator  writes  on  slips  of  paper  that  are  instantly  car- 
ried to  the  editor  for  whom  they  are  intended.  Bul- 
letins are  employed  to  particular  advantage  during 
court  trials,  when  into  the  main  running  story  the  re- 
porter interjects  guides  for  the  editor,  such  as :  "Sum- 
ming up  for  prosecution  nearly  over,"  information 
gained  by  the  reporter  through  seeing  the  lawyer  lay 
down  the  last  page  of  his  notes  and  take  off  his  spec- 
tacles; and  "Get  ready  for  verdict;  jury  is  coming  in." 

Another  device  is  the  "flash,"  employed  to  convey 
information  for  the  receipt  of  which  the  editors  are 
holding  the  paper  from  the  press.     Particularly  is  it 


1 34  Making  a  Newspaper 

useful  when  a  prizefight  is  being  reported.  Before  the 
fight  has  made  much  progress  the  sending  operator 
begins  to  lag  behind,  and  it  may  easily  be  that  while 
the  eighth  round  is  in  progress  he  is  still  working  on 
the  sixth  or  seventh.  Should  one  of  the  fighters  now 
be  "knocked  out,"  the  operator  waiting  only  long 
enough  to  give  the  warning  word  'Tlash"  sends  from 
dictation  the  bulletii/  announcing  the  winner.  Know- 
ing who  won  the  c<>^est  the  paper  can  put  an  *'extra" 
on  the  press,  anr*  .eave  for  a  later  edition  a  description 
of  the  round'"  "ielween  the  point  where  the  flash  was 
inserted  ai^'i'^e  end  of  the  fight. 

The  abt*:ty  to  write  good  headings  is  one  of  a  copy 
reader's  most  valuable  accomplishments.  In  fact,  a 
man  who  is  unable  to  write  ones  that  are  more  than 
fair  cannot  hold  a  place  at  the  desk  of  a  big  paper, 
even  if  he  can  correct  manuscript  in  a  satisfactory 
manner ;  at  least  a  third  of  the  reporters  who  are  made 
copy  readers  are  sent  back  to  their  old  places  because 
their  work  in  this  line  does  not  come  up  to  the  mark. 
The  editors  hold  that  anyone  who  has  a  fair  education 
can  learn  how  to  cut  out  errors  and  embellish  with  a 
little  practice,  and  that  were  it  not  for  the  headings, 
they  could  employ  school-teachers  to  perform  a  large 
part  of  the  work  inside  the  office.  In  all  the  large 
cities  the  demand  for  first-class  heading  writers  keeps 
constantly  a  little  ahead  of  the  supply. 

The  heading  of  an  article  is  intended  to  call  attention 
to  it  and  to  set  forth  its  most  prominent  features,  and 
the  writer  must  say  a  great  deal  in  a  few  w^ords;  the 
more  information  he  can  crowd  in  the  better.  And 
here  is  where  the  rub  comes:  "The  column  rules,"  in 
the  language  of  the  printers,  "cannot  be  bent,"  and  the 
heading  must  accommodate  itself  to  space.     Half  the 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  135 

time  the  heading  that  a  copy  reader  would  like  to  use 
has  to  be  discarded  because  it  is  too  long.  Always 
there  are  certain  forms  which  have  to  be  followed,  and 
on  papers  which  do  not  favor  bill-poster  type  and 
^'scares/'  the  usual  limit  for  the  first  part  of  the  largest 
heading  printed  is  twenty  letters,  a  space  counting  the 
same  as  a  letter,  a  circumstance  which  accounts  in 
part  for  such  familiar  lines  as  "Killed  Wife  and  Self," 
'Tanic  in  Tenement,"  ''Murder  and  Suicide,"  and 
''Ferryboats  in  Crash."  Humorous  headings  are  in 
high  favor  in  many  offices,  and  there  are  few  managing 
editors  who  will  not  commend  the  writer  of  one  that  is 
especially  clever.  To  learn  how  to  write  headings  one 
should  study  the  yellow  journals,  as  they  gather  in 
most  of  the  past  masters  in  the  art.  To  learn  what 
to  avoid  one  might  with  profit  turn  to  the  files  of  some 
New  York  paper  for  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  where  he  will  find  column- 
long  stories  labeled  by  such  ambiguous  announcements 
as  "Very  Important,"  "Latest  from  Europe,"  and 
"Very  Latest." 

A  city  editor  who  finds  that  he  has  printed  a  piece  of 
important  news  which  escaped  the  other  papers  says, 
as  has  been  explained,  that  he  has  scored  a  beat  or  a 
scoop  on  them,  and  rejoices.  But  there  is  less  likeli- 
hood always  of  his  beating  his  rivals  than  there  is  of  one 
of  them  beating  him.  His  successes  are  not  measured 
against  those  of  one  other  city  editor,  but  against  those 
of  all  the  others  put  together,  and  therefore  with  all  the 
papers  equally  well  equipped  for  getting  the  news  the 
odds  against  him  are  as  the  number  of  papers  is  to  one. 

But  regardless  of  the  odds  against  him  no  city 
editor,  at  least  none  employed  on  a  big  paper,  is  con- 
tent to  remain  on  the  defensive  and  aim  only  to  pro- 


136  Making  a  Newspaper 

tect  himself  against  defeat;  he  would  not,  even  were 
it  possible,  engage  only  in  drawn  battles.  Instead  he 
strives  in  every  possible  way  to  eclipse  his  rivals,  and 
never  holds  back  for  fear  of  retaliation.  But  beats  in 
these  times  are  not  to  be  picked  up  every  week,  no 
matter  how  hard  they  are  sought.  The  police  system 
of  newsgathering  lays  bare  to  every  paper  a  good  part 
of  the  town's  activities ;  the  custom  of  paying  volunteer 
reporters  removes  the  ban  of  comparative  secrecy  from 
many  others;  the  growing  extension  of  the  telephone 
system  makes  it  easy  for  a  man  to  call  up  his  favorite 
paper  when  something  out  of  the  way  claims  the  atten- 
tion of  his  neighborhood,  and  the  neighborhoods  in 
wdiich  every  paper  does  not  have  admirers  are  few; 
and  last  but  not  least  the  local  newsgathering  asso- 
ciation is  to  be  reckoned  with,  for  every  piece  of  news 
that  reaches  any  of  its  large  force  of  reporters  is  dis- 
tributed broadcast.  In  New  York  a  monumental  ex- 
clusive beat  is  not  scored  once  in  twelve  months.  But 
in  the  same  length  of  time  any  one  paper  may  be  badly 
beaten  repeatedly;  for  it  may  miss  news  that  only  one 
of  its  rivals  got,  that  several  of  them  got,  or  that  all 
of  them  got. 

Because  beats  are  so  hard  to  land  the  city  editor  tries 
to  triumph  by  enhancing  the  quality  of  his  news.  Each 
story  that  comes  to  him  he  examines  carefully  in  hopes 
that  he  will  find  in  it  some  detail  which,  exploited  in  a 
certain  way,  will  enable  him  to  accomplish  unexpected 
execution,  or  in  other  words,  considering  each  story 
as  a  weapon  that  has  been  distributed  impartially,  he 
endeavors  to  win  a  victory  through  skill  in  handling. 
And  to  be  fitted  to  conduct  an  aggressive  fight  a  city 
editor  should  possess  an  enormous  fund  of  general  in- 
formation; should  be  well  up  on  current  topics  and 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  137 

local  history;  should  know  his  city  thoroughly,  the 
location  of  all  public  institutions,  churches,  hotels,  and 
theaters,  the  homes  and  favorite  clubs  of  men  who  are 
often  in  demand,  and  the  whereabouts  of  a  good  share 
of  the  dives  and  gambling  houses;  and,  perhaps  more 
important,  should  know  a  great  deal  about  the  leading 
men  and  politicians  of  the  city,  their  likes  and  dislikes, 
their  reputations  for  veracity  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  can  best  be  approached,  their  social  stations,  their 
business  interests  and  business  standings,  their  favorite 
recreations,  their  families  and  their  relatives,  and,  if 
possible,  their  secret  habits  and  their  states  of  mind — 
happy  or  discontented. 

Knowing  all  these  things  a  city  editor  makes  the 
experienced  newsgatherers  proud  of  him,  and  con- 
vinces the  novices  that  he  is  m.ore  than  human.  When 
word  is  received  that  the  firemen  have  been  summoned 
to  Amsterdam  Avenue  and  104th  Street,  he  puts  the 
reporter  he  sends  out  on  the  story  on  his  mettle  by 
saying,  "Now  hurry  along,  for  there  are  on  that  corner 
a  home  for  aged  women,  a  schoolhouse,  and  a  home 
for  the  blind;"  learning  that  there  has  been  a  high- 
way robber  captured  at  Third  Avenue  and  Fifteenth 
Street  he  keeps  the  reporter  from  going  astray  by  tell- 
ing him  to  go  to  the  East  Twenty-Second  Street  station 
house;  if  Stephen  Stevenson  drops  dead  he  gives  the 
reporter  a  hint  by  saying,  "His  wife  is  a  daughter  of 
Jacob  Manton,  and  his  son,  who  is  a  lawyer,  has  an 
office  in  the  Bowling  Green  Building;"  if  he  hears 
that  James  Vanbest  is  to  be  married,  he  mentions  to 
the  reporter  told  to  investigate  the  story  that  Van- 
best,  who  can  usually  be  found  at  the  Complex  Club, 
was  ten  years  ago  sued  for  breach  of  promise  by  Lily 
Pansy,  a  chorus  girl ;  when  a  reporter  comes  in  with 


138  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  information  that  there  has  been  a  murder  in  the 
''White  Horse"  tavern  he  remembers  that  three  other 
murders  were,  years  ago,  committed  in  the  place,  and 
says  that  data  necessary  for  an  unusual  story  can  be 
found  in  the  office  morgue ;  sending  a  reporter  to  see 
Dr.  James  John,  he  remarks :  "Be  careful,  he's  tricky," 
and  assigning  another  to  see  a  prominent  lawyer,  he 
says :  "Go  in  on  your  hands  and  knees.  He  thinks  he  is 
the  most  important  man  in  town ;"  if  Dotty  Footlights, 
hurt  in  a  runaway  accident  in  the  park,  refuses  to  give 
the  name  of  the  man,  who,  riding,  with  her,  had  his 
leg  broken,  but  was  carried  off  by  a  friend,  he  tells  the 
reporter  sent  to  investigate  that  he  had  better  find  out 
whether  old  Palace,  the  bachelor-banker,  is  not  keeping 
indoors;  and  if  the  ship-news  reporter,  writing  about 
a  liner's  departure,  puts  Mrs.  J.  Vanantwerp  Jones 
among  the  "also  sailed,"  he  calls  him  to  his  desk  and 
asks  whether  her  husband  was  at  the  pier  to  bid  her 
good-bye.  "You  know,"  the  city  editor  says,  "they 
are  not  very  congenial,  and  this  may  mean  a  more  than 
temporary  separation." 

The  city  editor's  particular  dread  is  a  libel  suit. 
Twenty  defeats  are  preferable  to  one  suit  for  heavy 
damages  decided  against  his  paper.  And  less  fre- 
quently than  might  be  thought  do  libel  suits  come  as 
a  result  of  mistakes  made  by  the  newsgatherers.  Many 
times  the  city  editor  and  the  copy  readers  are  at  fault, 
for,  in  editing  an  article,  they  may,  by  cutting  out,  or 
putting  in,  or  transposing  a  sentence,  or  even  a  word, 
change  its  entire  meaning.  Particularly  in  writing 
headings  is  a  copy  reader  liable  to  error.  After  patch- 
ing up  an  involved  or  poorly  written  story  which  says 
that  Jones  was  arrested  on  complaint  of  Smith,  a  man 
not  infrequently  writes  a  heading  which  says   that 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  139 

Smith  was  the  person  arrested;  and  reading  a  story 
page  by  page,  sending  each  one  to  the  printers  as  soon 
as  he  has  gone  over  it,  a  copy  reader  who  allows  his 
wits  to  wander  can  very  easily  get  streets  and  street 
numbers  mixed.  If  a  copy  reader  does  write  a  head- 
ing saying  that  the  police  made  a  raid  on  a  house  of 
ill  repute  at  a  certain  number  in  Forty-fifth  Street, 
whereas  the  story  says  the  house  was  in  Fifty-fourth 
Street,  a  libel  suit  is  almost  sure  to  come  if  the  error  is 
not  detected  before  it  gets  into  the  paper. 

Headings  often  give  rise  to  libel  suits  because,  in 
^em,  owing  to  a  lack  of  space,  there  is  small  chance 
to  use  qualifying  words.  A  reporter  compelled  to 
write  a  story  which  he  fears  will  cause  trouble  selects 
his  words  with  care,  and  avoids  making  direct  state- 
ments. He  manages  to  make  his  meaning  clear  by  in- 
sinuation, and  he  writes  around  rather  than  at  the 
object  of  his  attack;  sometimes  he  writes  a  whole 
column  without  making  an  accusation,  and  then  at  the 
end  tacks  on  a  seemingly  irrelevant  paragraph  which, 
in  the  light  of  what  precedes  it,  gives  a  new  turn  to  the 
whole  story.  For  example,  a  long  article  telling  about 
the  reported  disappearance  from  home  of  Mrs.  Brown 
may  be  brought  to  a  close  with  the  plain  assertion  that 
Mr.  Black,  who  lives  near  the  Brown  home,  has  not 
been  seen  for  several  days.  By  insinuation  the  story 
says  that  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mr.  Black  have  gone  away 
together.  The  heading  for  a  story  of  this  type  is 
required  to  say  enough  to  attract  attention,  but  is  sup- 
posed to  do  it  so  skillfully  that  neither  Mrs.  Brown 
nor  Mr.  Black  can  make  it  the  basis  of  a  libel  suit, 
even  should  it  develop  that  neither  was  away  from 
home,  and  more  than  this,  that  they  were  not  even  ac- 
quainted.    The  copy  reader  who  attempts  a  feat  of 


140  Making  a  Newspaper 

this  kind,  as  might  be  expected,  is  not  invariably  suc- 
cessful. 

Every  day,  perhaps  at  his  own  home,  the  city  editor 
goes  over  all  the  local  stories  printed  in  his  paper  to 
see  how  his  instructions  have  been  obeyed,  and  after 
this,  compares  the  stories  with  those  appearing  in  the 
rival  publications.  Memorandum  is  made  of  every 
shortcoming,  and  later  the  reporters  find  in  their  mail 
boxes  little  notes,  sometimes  exceedingly  sarcastic, 
which  set  them  to  thinking.  Usually  the  city  editor 
engages  the  reporters,  and  in  any  event  he  has  the 
power  to  dismiss  those  w^ho  do  not  come  up  to  his 
requirements.  Of  beginners  who  show  that  they  are 
entirely  unfitted  for  newspaper  work  he  quickly  dis- 
poses, and  he  is  ever  ready  to  warn  the  experienced  men 
who  give  evidence  that  they  are  growing  careless  or 
losing  their  enthusiasm,  and  to  dismiss  them  if  there  is 
not  an  immediate  change  for  the  better.  And  how- 
ever much  he  likes  a  reporter  personally  he  cannot  be 
lenient,  for  defeats  operate  not  only  against  his  peace 
of  mind  but  against  his  existence  as  an  editor  as  well. 

Every  moment  that  he  can  spare  from  his  other 
duties  while  he  is  in  the  office  the  city  editor  spends 
in  going  over  the  rival  papers  in  search  of  material  for 
fresh  stories.  If  he  sees  a  dispatch  that  a  bank  has 
failed  in  a  nearby  city  he  promptly  telephones  to  the 
financial  editor,  asking  him  whether  any  local  bank 
is  hurt;  noticing  that  suicides  are  unusually  plentiful, 
he  details  a  reporter  to  go  up  to  the  Board  of  Health 
offices  and  get  a  column  story  on  the  prevalence  of 
self-murder,  and  the  probable  cause  of  it ;  a  great  drop 
in  the  selling  price  of  any  corporation's  securities  leads 
him  to  dispatch  a  reporter  to  demand  an  explanation 
of  the  corporation's  president.     "Ask  him  if  the  rumor 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  141 

that  the  concern  is  in  a  bad  way  is  true,"  he  calls  after 
the  departing  newsgadierer.  Coming  across  a  formal 
death  notice  which  begins  ''Suddenly,"  he  starts  a 
novice  out  to  ascertain  something  about  the  death;  a 
report  of  an  epidemic  in  some  foreign  seaport  causes 
him  to  detail  a  man  to  see  the  local  quarantine  officers 
and  ask  them  what  precautions  they  are  taking  to 
guard  against  the  introduction  of  the  disease  into  this 
country;  and  learning  that  a  notorious  criminal  is  to 
be  released  from  prison,  he  arranges  to  have  a  man  at 
the  prison  gate  to  ask  him  how  it  feels  to  be  free  again, 
and  what  he  expects  to  do  in  the  future.  So  his  work 
goes  on  all  day  long. 

Most  of  the  time  the  city  editor  leaves  to  the  sport- 
ing editor  the  work  of  looking  after  the  sporting  events, 
but  on  the  occasion  of  a  prizefight,  a  big  football 
game,  or  something  of  a  similar  nature,  he  summons 
the  sporting  editor  and  asks  him  how  he  intends  to 
"cover"  the  event.  Often  he  makes  suggestions,  and 
he  may  intimate  that  he  would  be  willing  to  assign 
one  or  two  of  his  own  best  men  to  relieve  the  sporting 
editor's  reporters  of  the  descriptive  writing.  To- 
gether they  decide  on  the  space  that  is  to  be  given  the 
story,  and,  this  settled,  make  arrangements  to  get  the 
news  into  the  office  promptly.  The  chess  editor,  the 
labor  editor,  and  all  the  other  special  editors  are  also 
called  upon  to  consult  with  the  city  editor  when  the  news 
in  their  departments  assumes  unusual  worth,  and  the 
good  stories  they  'land"  are  never  allowed  to  be  buried 
in  an  inside  page  under  a  department  heading. 

It  is  when  a  big  story  "breaks  loose,"  when  there  is  a 
bad  railroad  or  steamboat  accident,  when  a  theater  or  a 
hotel  catches  fire,  when  a  crowded  building  collapses, 
when  a  panic  sweeps  over  the  financial  district,  when 


142  Making  a  Newspaper 

a  great  man  dies  suddenly,  when  something  occurs, 
in  short,  which  calls  for  a  concentration  of  public 
thought  far  and  near  that  the  city  editor  is  hardest 
tried.  On  an  occasion  of  this  kind  he  receives  as- 
sistance from  the  managing  editor,  but  he  must  do 
almost  all  of  the  detailed  planning,  and  moreover, 
suggestions  from  the  managing  editor,  in  a  sense,  add 
to  his  responsibilities  for,  regardless  of  the  manner  in 
which  he  executes  his  own  ideas,  he  is  required  to  have 
all  orders  transmitted  from  above  (and  suggestions 
are  only  polite  orders)  carried  out  in  the  best  manner 
possible.  Failing  in  any  particular  he  is  sure  to  hear 
about  it,  even  if  he  handle  the  story  as  a  whole  in  a 
satisfactory  manner. 

His  first  task,  and  it  is  no  light  one,  a  story  spring- 
ing on  him  suddenly,  is  to  find  men  to  cover  it,  and 
this  means  that  he  must  decide  in  a  few  moments  which 
stories  on  which  reporters  are  already  engaged  can, 
with  the  greatest  safety,  be  abandoned;  and  devise 
means  for  reaching  the  reporters.  To  pave  the  way 
for  quick  action  in  just  such  emergencies,  the  city  edi- 
tors of  most  evening  papers  require  their  reporters  to 
communicate  with  the  of^ce  over  the  telephone  every 
hour,  and,  of  course,  with  a  staff  of  twenty  or  thirty 
men,  the  intervals  between  calls  are  short.  Where 
this  custom  is  not  observed  the  reporters  are  reached 
by  telephone  and  messenger,  usually  after  nerve-wrack- 
ing delays,  although  every  reporter  calls  his  ofifice  as 
soon  as  he  learns  of  an  extraordinary  occurrence,  and 
offers  his  services.  The  general  practice  of  city  edi- 
tors is  to  over-man  a  big  story  rather  than  under-man 
it,  for  on  these  occasions  a  paper,  too,  is  put  to  an  espe- 
cially severe  test.  Ordinarily  a  man  buys  a  single 
paper,  the  same  one  day  after  day,  reads  it  and  con- 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  143 

siders  that  he  has  acquired  all  the  news.  But  learning 
of  a  catastrophe  or  some  other  momentous  event  he 
buys  three  or  four  papers  and  reads  the  big  story  in 
each  one.  Then  if  his  favorite  journal  suffers  through 
the  comparison  he  never  stops  to  see  whether  it  more 
than  holds  its  ow^n  in  the  lesser  news,  but  condemns  it 
through  and  through.  Presenting  a  poor  account  of 
a  big  piece  of  news  a  paper  may  easily  lose  hundreds 
of  readers. 

Having  got  in  touch  with  his  reporters  and  learned 
the  extent  of  the  news  (for  the  first  duty  of  the  early 
arrivals  at  the  scene  of  a  big  piece  of  news  is  to  call 
their  office  and  describe  the  situation),  the  city  editor 
begins  to  apportion  the  story.  To  one  man  he  gives 
the  task  of  procuring  material  for  a  general  descrip- 
tion which  shall  open  the  paper's  account ;  to  another, 
if  a  fire  is  demanding  attention,  is  intrusted  the  work 
of  ascertaining  the  source  of  the  flames;  another  is 
told  to  get  a  list  of  the  dead;  a  man  is  sent  to  each 
hospital  to  which  rescued  persons  are  taken,  to  get 
their  names,  and  if  possible,  stories  of  their  experi- 
ences ;  and  others  are  detailed  to  look  after  the  money 
loss,  the  insurance,  the  rescues,  and  the  persons  re- 
ported missings  At  brief  intervals  the  city  editor  gets 
fresh  information  from  his  scouts,  for  they  tell  him 
immediately  of  all  new  developments,  and  before  the 
day  is  over  he  may  have  every  man  on  his  staff  giving 
all  or  part  of  his  attention,  for  the  watchers  in  emer- 
gencies are  frequently  instructed  to  make  quick  dashes 
to  hospitals  or  other  places,  to  the  big  news  of  the  day. 

After  he  has  made  provision  for  covering  the  main 
features  of  the  story  the  city  editor  buckles  down  and 
tries  to  find  the  central  point  of  the  whole  thing, 
searches  for  the  detail  that,  exploited  in  the  right  man- 


144  Mnkmg  a  Newspaper 

ner,  will  place  his  story  .above  that  of  the  other  papers. 
Perhaps  the  feature  lies  in  the  causes  leading  to  the 
fire,  carelessness,  poor  construction,  incompetent  em- 
ployees, or  incendiarism;  perhaps  it  lies  in  the  work 
of  the  firemen;  perhaps  it  is  decided  that  the  flames 
would  have  been  drowned  at  the  start  had  it  not  been 
for  the  poor  water  supply.  Whatever  decision  is  made, 
and  the  managing  editor  gets  a  vote  here,  it  is  com- 
municated to  the  reporters  who  are  at  w^ork  on  parts  of 
the  story  that  niay  be  affected,  and  later,  when  the  news 
is  going  down  on  paper,  general  instructions  are  issued, 
so  that  everything  is  made  to  move  toward  the  one 
end. 

Before  leaving  the  city  editor,  it  is  worth  while  call- 
ing attention  to  the  fact  that  news  is  under  many  cir- 
cumstances valued  in  direct  proportion  to  the  difficulties 
which  must  be  overcome  to  procure  it,  and  that  what 
comes  too  easily  is  frequently  not  valued  at  all.  To 
illustrate:  if  two  neighbors,  neither  of  any  particular 
prominence  in  the  community,  after  having  a  disagree- 
ment come  to  blows,  but  afterward  in  their  sober  senses 
agree  to  keep  quiet  about  the  affair,  a  city  editor, 
getting  an  inkling  of  it  and  failing  to  get  a  word  from 
either  participant,  will  work  with  might  and  main  to 
get  all  the  details,  and  later  publish  them  with  a  great 
hurrah.  In  effect,  he  labors  with  the  idea  of  showing 
that  he  cannot  be  put  off  or  defeated;  and  the  other 
city  editors,  reading  his  story,  and  subsequently  failing 
to  make  progress  with  either  participant,  wnll  do  their 
best  to  start  the  fight  anew.  But  if,  after  having  a 
disagreement  and  coming  to  blows,  two  neighbors  both 
post  off  to  a  newspaper  office  to  air  their  grievances, 
the  city  editor,  blowing  hot  for  a  moment,  soon  blows 
cold.     ''Ahem,"  he  says,  and  "Aha."     Then  he  picks 


What  the  City  Editor  Does  145 

out  a  young  reporter  to  take  the  story,  and  returning 
to  his  desk  starts  up  his  pipe.  The  tobacco  all  gone, 
likewise  the  two  belligerents,  he  strolls  over  to  where 
the  young  reporter  is  at  work,  picks  up  a  sheet  or  two 
of  his  copy,  reads  it  over  slowly,  nods  his  head,  and 
says :  '1  don't  believe,  Mr.  Blank,  that  I'd  make  much 
of  that  story.  In  fact  I  think  about  a  stick  will  do. 
We're  not  here  to  mix  in  neighbors'  squabbles."  If 
the  story  ever  gets  into  the  paper  at  all,  which  is  doubt- 
ful, the  other  city  editors  size  it  up  for  just  what  it  is, 
and  no  more  is  heard  of  the  affair,  or  at  least  nothing 
more  is  printed  about  it. 

Continually  afraid  that  someone  who  has  an  ax  to 
grind  will  deceive  him  and  make  him  turn  the  stone, 
the  city  editor  occasionally  kills  a  story  which,  w^hile 
it  has  all  the  ear-marks  of  being  what  it  purports  to 
be,  comes  in  the  category  of  what  is  to  be  handled  with 
care.  Thus,  when  someone  appears  in  the  office  with 
a  story  of  a  runaway  in  the  park,  in  which  a  woman 
is  hurt,  the  city  editor  is  all  attention  until  he  learns 
that  the  injured  person  is  a  small-part  actress  or  a 
chorus  girl.  Then  he  smiles  knowingly  and  weaves  the 
newsbearer  off.  "Not  to-day,"  he  says.  If  someone 
comes  to  him  with  a  story  of  an  actress  losing  her 
diamonds,  he  may  lose  his  temper  and  ask  the  writer 
w^hether  he  had  not  better  turn  his  attention  to  the  gold- 
brick  industry;  and  when  w^ord  is  received  that  two 
actors  have  engaged  in  fisticuffs,  he  either  decides  to  let 
the  story  severely  alone  or  details  a  clever  man  to 
write  an  article  which  shall  make  them  both  ridiculous. 
Of  inventors  he  is  always  shy,  and  he  wastes  few 
words  with  promoters  and  self-acclaimed  celebrities. 

Afraid  as  he  is  of  news  that  is  offered  to  him  free 
of  cost  or  labor,  the  city  editor  is  still  more  afraid  of 


146  Making  a  Newspaper 

anything  which  is  handed  to  him  accompanied  by  the 
information  that  the  giver  is  wilHng  to  pay  to  have 
it  get  into  print.  Every  city  editor  is  a  stickler  on  this 
score,  and  the  usual  procedure  is  to  order  the  would-be 
benefactor  out  of  the  office  in  words  that  are  more 
expressive  than  elegant.  Not  understanding  how 
offers  of  payment  are  regarded  by  city  editors,  a  man 
who  has  news  that  he  would  like  to  have  printed  occa- 
sionally puts  himself  entirely  outside  the  pale,  not  only 
for  the  time  but  forever,  or  until  the  incident  is  for- 
gotten, whereas  giving  the  news  without  comment 
when  called  upon  by  a  reporter  he  would  be  considered 
a  friend. 


CHAPTER  X 

QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  JOURNALISM 

When  any  editor  except  the  city  editor  drops  out  of 
a  newspaper  office  temporarily,  there  is  a  sHght  shift- 
ing about  and  a  closing  of  the  ranks,  and  the  paper 
reaches  the  street  on  schedule  time,  without  more  than 
a  third  of  those  in  the  office  being  any  the  wiser.  But 
let  one  of  the  star  reporters  who  has  been  at  work  on 
a  murder  mystery  which  is  claiming  the  town's  atten- 
tion fail  to  put  in  an  appearance  at  the  time  he  is  ex- 
pected; let  the  political  reporter  absent  himself  on  the 
day  that  the  Governor  comes  to  town;  or  let  the  prize 
race-track  man  send  word  that  he  is  ill  on  the  day  that 
a  big  race  is  to  be  run,  and  instantly  the  whole  estab- 
lishment is  affected.  The  managing  editor  and  the 
city  editor  put  their  heads  together  and  talk  it  over; 
the  assistant  managing  editor  and  the  assistant  city 
editor  begin  to  review  the  capacities  of  the  different 
reporters  w4th  special  interest;  the  copy  readers,  al- 
though they  are  only  onlookers,  view  the  situation  if 
not  with  alarm  at  least  with  uneasiness  and  tell  them- 
selves that  now  is  the  time  to  do  careful  w^ork  and  avoid 
mistakes;  and  half  of  the  remaining  newsgatherers 
wonder  whether  the  chance  for  which  they  have  been 
looking  is  at  hand.  Somehow,  always  the  gap  is  filled, 
but  unless  the  occasion  marks  the  birth  of  a  new  star, 
or  some  worker,  already  a  star  in  his  own  field,  demon- 
strates that  he  is  equal  to  things  not  hitherto  suspected, 

147 


148  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  stop-gap  invariably  leaves  something  to  be  desired. 
The  editors  count  themselves  lucky  if  they  get  through 
the  day  without  a  serious  defeat,  and,  even  winning  a 
victory,  w^onder  whether  they  would  not  have  done 
better  had  they  had  the  services  of  the  missing  man. 

First-class  reporters  are  scarce.  There  is  a  multi- 
tude of  poor  ones  and  an  overabundance  of  fair  ones, 
but  the  supply  of  those  who  are  undoubtedly  among 
the  best  is  never  up  to  the  demand.  The  paper  which 
does  get  a  half-dozen  first-class  men  on  its  staff  is  well 
able  to  take  care  of  itself,  and  is  sure  to  give  concern 
to  its  competitors;  most  papers  have  only  two  or 
three,  and  a  great  many  have  none.  In  a  few  large 
offices  the  editors  try  to  manufacture  their  stars  from 
the  raw  material;  but  despite  the  fact  that  they  select 
their  candidates  with  care,  picking  each  man  from  per- 
haps two  score  of  applicants,  they  attain  very  few 
successes;  not  enough,  one  who  did  not  know  how 
scarce  good  reporters  were  would  say,  to  pay  them  for 
their  trouble.  There  is  one  New  York  paper,  one  that 
is  particularly  well  known,  which  every  year  from  a 
host  of  applicants  for  situations  selects  about  a  score 
of  young  men,  most  of  them  college  graduates,  and 
gives  each  one  a  chance  to  show  what  he  can  do. 
Every  effort  is  made  to  develop  those  who  show 
promise.  Yet,  if  from  the  total  number  employed  the 
editors  get  one  good  man,  they  congratulate  them- 
selves. Many,  many  years  they  are  compelled  to  make 
a  clean  sweep  of  the  newcomers,  not  one  coming  up 
to  requirements. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  the 
saying  that  good  reporters  are  born  and  not  made. 
A  man  may  learn  how  to  gather  some  kinds  of  news, 
and  he  may  learn  how  to  write  correctly,  but  if  he  can- 


Qualifications  for  Journalism  149 

not  see  the  picturesque  or  vital  point  of  an  incident  and 
express  what  he  sees  so  that  others  will  see  as  through 
his  eyes,  his  productions,  even  if  no  particular  fault 
can  be  found  with  them,  will  not  bear  the  mark  of  true 
excellence ;  and  there  is,  if  one  stops  to  think,  a  great 
difference  between  something  that  is  devoid  of  faults 
and  something  that  is  full  of  good  points.  The  quality 
which  makes  a  good  newspaper  man  must,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  editors,  exist  in  the  beginning.  But 
when  it  does  exist,  it  can  usually  be  developed,  no  mat- 
ter how  many  obstacles  are  in  the  way. 

The  primary  qualification  for  a  good  reporter,  and 
this  means  any  worker  who  handles  news,  for  editors 
are  only  promoted  reporters,  coming  down  to  basic 
principles,  is  the  ability  to  see  news  when  it  exists,  and 
to  differentiate  any  piece  of  news  and  pick  out  the 
features  in  it  which  are  most  worthy  of  attention  or 
exploitation.  Ability  to  determine  the  crux  of  a  story 
does  not,  however,  of  itself  guarantee  that  a  man  will 
make  a  finished  reporter,  for  with  reporters  as  with 
painters  and  musicians,  conception  and  intuition 
amount  to  little  unless  they  are  properly  set  forward 
in  action.  Were  it  otherwise  real  artists  and  good 
newspaper  men  would  be  far  more  plentiful.  The 
man  who  can  analyze  news  and  pick  out  the  picturesque 
or  vital  point  of  a  story  is  competent  to  this  extent,  but 
he  will  not  be  accepted  as  a  good  reporter  until  he 
proves  that  he  can  carry  out  his  ideas  from  beginning 
to  end.  The  qualifications  for  a  good  reporter,  there- 
fore, are  the  ability  to  determine  what  information  is 
wanted;  to  procure  this  information;  and  last  to  put 
this  information  on  paper  in  a  pleasing  manner.  Abil- 
ity to  collect  information  calls  for  alertness,  resource- 
fulness, enthusiasm,  love  of  hard  work,  a  good  memory. 


150  Making  a  Newspaper 

good  health,  and  ambition.  Ability  to  write  enter- 
tainingly calls  for  natural  aptitude,  coupled  with  either 
education  or  extraordinary  powers  of  observation.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  reporters  of  the  first  grade  are 
scarce.  Lacking  one  qualification  here  cited,  a  man 
is  barred,  even  if  he  can  see  the  news  where  others 
cannot. 

The  more  natural  endowments  and  the  more  ac- 
quirements the  young  newspaper  worker  has  the  better 
it  is  for  him,  but  if  he  is  to  succeed  he  absolutely  must 
possess  unbounded  enthusiasm  and  good  health.  He  may 
lack  both  and  still  make  a  brilliant  spurt,  but  it  is  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  that  the  absence  of  either  will  bar  him 
from  the  big  prizes.  The  enthusiasm,  too,  must  be 
proof  against  tarnish,  else  it  will  suffer  when,  early 
in  his  career,  he  is  sent  to  ask  some  woman  whether 
it  is  true  that  her  husband  has  run  ofi  with  a 
concert  hall  singer,  or  to  perform  some  other  task 
equally  disagreeable.  Beginners  usually  get  more 
than  their  share  of  the  undesirable  assignments,  and 
more  than  one  young  man,  who  since  boyhood  has 
looked  forward  to  the  delights  of  journalism,  has,  be- 
cause of  this,  begun  to  have  misgivings  before  the 
expiration  of  his  first  week's  work.  The  novice,  more- 
over, is  subject  to  many  discouragements,  for  there  is 
no  coddling  in  a  newspaper  office.  The  inexperienced 
man  is  sent  on  errands  that  do  not  promise  much,  but 
it  is  expected  that,  having  little  asked  of  him,  he  will  do 
that  little  as  well  as  it  could  be  done  by  anyone  else. 
Not  infrequently,  because  he  is  subjected  to  a  steady 
stream  of  criticism  and  because  he  gets  so  many  un- 
pleasant tasks,  a  beginner  comes  to  think  himself  ill- 
treated.  What  he  overlooks  is  that  his  editor  is  treat- 
ing him  with  kindness  in  allowing  him  to  make  an 


Qualifications  for  Journalism  i  5 1 

attempt  to  perform  certain  work,  and  thus  hold  a  phice 
which  a  lot  of  other  men,  who  could  undoubtedly  per- 
form the  work  required,  are  extremely  anxious  to  get. 
Beginners  are  only  tolerated.  There  is  no  crying 
demand  for  their  services. 

Bad  habits,  contrary  to  a  rather  widespread  belief, 
are  looked  upon  in  most  newspaper  offices  just  as  they 
are  elsewhere.  Now  and  then  an  editor  is  discovered 
who  says  that  he  does  not  care  how  those  who  work  for 
him  Hve  so  long  as  they  perform  their  duties  in  a 
satisfactory  manner;  but  there  is  none  who  is  not 
quick  to  protest  the  moment  a  man's  habits  interfere 
with  his  efficiency,  or  with  the  peace  of  the  establish- 
ment. The  reporter  who  fails  to  pay  his  debts  is  safe 
only  while  his  creditors  stay  aw^ay  from  his  office,  and 
the  one  who  keeps  bad  company  can  do  so  with  im- 
punity only  while  he  does  good  work  and  while  his 
undesirable  acquaintances  let  him  alone  during  busi- 
ness hours.  No  newspaper  worker  is  expected  to 
have  many  visitors  call  to  see  him  at  the  office,  and 
editors  object  so  strongly  to  having  the  telephones 
used  for  other  than  office  business  that  they  will  not 
keep  a  reporter  whose  friends  insist  on  calling  him 
over  the  wire. 

The  frow^sy-haired,  picturesquely  clad,  irresponsible 
journalists  one  reads  about  in  novels,  and  sees  on  the 
stage,  exist  now  only  in  imagination.  There  are  no 
brilliant  geniuses,  who,  drunk  or  sober,  need  only  an- 
nounce themselves  at  the  door  of  a  newspaper  office  to 
be  invited  in  and  made  much  of,  in  the  hope  that  they 
will  deign  to  dash  off  a  masterpiece,  and  there  are  no 
erratic  prodigies  for  whose  favor  editors  bow  and 
scrape.  In  place  of  the  unstable  wonders,  the  papers 
employ  steady  hard  workers,  respectably  dressed,  who 


1^2  Making  a  Newspaper 

appear  ready  for  work  every  day.  The  only  Bo- 
hemians of  modern  journalism  are  young  men  who 
have  not  yet  got  their  bearings,  and  hangers-on,  and 
failures.  To  call  an  experienced  newspaper  man  a 
Bohemian  is  to  insult  him. 


CHAPTER  XI 
HOW  THE  REPORTERS  WORK 

Most  beginners  in  journalism  get  a  shock  when  they 
receive  their  first  assignment.  Almost  every  man  of 
them  imagines  before  he  enters  the  service  of  a  news- 
paper that  on  his  initiation  day  he  will  be  taken  aside 
and  put  in  possession  of  a  lot  of  secrets;  that  going 
into  the  office  with  no  knowledge  of  newsgathering, 
he  will,  a  few  hours  later,  emerge  a  self-reliant  re- 
porter. The  shock  comes  when  he  learns  that  there  are 
no  secrets  to  set  him  right,  and  no  magic  words  im- 
parted to  help  him  unlock  mysteries.  He  comes  out 
of  the  office  as  he  went  in,  only  coming  out  he  is  on  an 
errand. 

The  initiation  of  a  reporter  is  very  matter  of  fact. 
Reaching  the  office  on  his  first  day  the  beginner,  mak- 
ing himself  known,  is  directed  to  take  a  seat  in  some 
corner,  and  usually  the  scene  harks  him  back  to  his 
schooldays,  for  the  big  room  is  filled  with  desks 
ranged  in  rows,  and  up  at  the  front  sits  the  city  editor 
for  all  the  world  like  a  teacher.  Soon  the  room  begins 
to  fill  with  young  men,  who,  by  nodding  to  one  an- 
other, prove  that  they  are  no  strangers  to  the  place, 
but  from  none  of  them  does  he  get  more  than  a  glance. 
Some  begin  to  read  newspapers,  others  devote  them- 
selves to  cutting  out  clippings  which  they  paste  in 
long  strings,  while  a  few  gather  in  the  back  of  the 

153 


154  Making  a  Newspaper 

room  and  engage  in  a  low-voiced  conversation.  Then 
one  by  one  they  are  summoned  to  the  city  editor's  desk, 
and  after  listening  to  him  for  a  minute,  bustle  out  of 
the  door. 

Long  after  the  time  the  newcomer  has  decided  that 
he  has  been  forgotten,  an  office  boy  tells  him  that 
the  city  editor  wishes  to  speak  to  him,  and  he  hurries 
forward.  ^'Good-morning,"  says  the  city  editor,  ''you 
are  the  new  reporter,  are  you  not?"  Then  the  new- 
comer is  asked  to  give  his  name  and  the  city  editor 
pronounces  it  after  him.  If  it  is  an  unusual  name 
he  spells  it,  and  asks,  "Is  that  right?"  This  formality 
over  the  city  editor  is  once  more  on  very  familiar 
ground.  "Well,  Mr.  Blank,"  he  says;  "  a  woman  has 
tried  to  kill  herself  at  Avenue  A  and  Houston  Street. 
Kindly  look  into  the  matter."  Or  he  sends  him  on 
some  other  errand  of  less  moment.  The  new  recruit  a 
minute  later  is  in  the  street,  at  last  a  journalist.  Ex- 
perienced workers  rarely  call  themselves  journalists; 
"reporters,"  "newspaper  workers,"  or  "newspaper 
men"  they  say;  the  beginners  are  usually  "journal- 
ists," or  "engaged  in  journalism." 

The  new  reporter,  whatever  he  calls  himself,  arriv- 
ing at  Avenue  A  and  Houston  Street,  supposing  he  has 
been  sent  there  to  inquire  about  a  woman's  attempt  at 
suicide,  quickly  realizes  that  he  is  dependent  upon  his 
own  resources.  He  has  not  been  told  just  what  he  is 
expected  to  get,  nor  how  to  prosecute  his  search.  In- 
stead of  a  dignified  journalist  such  as  he  had  fancied, 
he  finds  himself  a  bewildered  young  man  begging  in- 
formation from  small  shopkeepers,  tenement-house 
janitors,  corner  loafers,  and  newsboys.  And  these  indi- 
viduals, he  learns,  have  no  notions  about  the  "courte- 
sies due  the  press"  of  which  he  has  heard.     They 


How  the  Reporters  Work  155 

look  on  him  with  suspicion,  give  him  short  answers  or 
none  at  all,  and  let  him  understand  that  he  is  meddle- 
some. Prosecuting  his  inquiries  in  a  saloon  he  need 
not  be  astonished  if  the  bartender  and  the  half-drunken 
idlers  jeer  at  him.  Newsgathering,  he  before  long 
decides,  is  hard  work  and  not  a  pleasant  pastime ;  and 
he  probably  returns  to  his  office  with  some  of  his  pre- 
conceived ideas  of  journalism  gone  forever.  An- 
other surprise  awaits  him  if  his  gleanings  are  pro- 
nounced incomplete  by  the  city  editor,  for  then  he  is 
sent  back  in  a  hurry  to  get  what  he  missed. 

There  are  two  principal  reasons  why  the  novice  is 
from  the  beginning  allowed  to  plan  as  well  as  fight 
his  battles.  First,  the  city  editor  cannot  take  the  time 
necessary  to  advise  him,  and  second,  the  detailed 
planning  must  be  done  on  the  scene  of  action,  or  at 
least  after  the  news  seeker  has  ascertained  what  con- 
fronts him.  Giving  a  reporter  an  assignment  such  as 
has  just  been  described  the  city  editor,  however  much 
he  wished  to  help,  could  do  little  more  than  say  to 
him:  "When  in  doubt  ask  a  policeman;"  and  an  ex- 
perienced reporter  could,  had  he  no  more  time  than 
the  city  editor,  add  little  else  than  "Look  for  another  re- 
porter." But  even  these  scraps  would  be  worth  a 
great  deal  to  the  beginner. 

The  police  and  the  experienced  reporters  are  the 
most  valuable  aids  the  new  reporter  can  call  to  for 
assistance,  and  when  he  does  call  he  is  rarely  repulsed. 
The  particular  policeman  for  whom  the  baffled  news- 
gatherer  should  look,  is  the  one  whose  beat  or  post  in- 
cludes the  scene  of  the  incident.  It  is,  as  has  already 
been  explained,  the  policeman's  duty  to  investigate  a 
great  many  of  the  events  taking  place  in  the  territory 
he  guards,  and  the  average  policeman  manages  to  keep 


156  Making  a  Newspaper 

himself  well  informed  concerning  almost  everything 
that  causes  talk  along  his  beat,  whether  it  be  something 
which  demands  his  official  attention  or  only  a  wedding, 
the  birth  of  twins,  the  death  of  the  shoemaker's  dog, 
or  the  fact  that  the  tinsmith  came  home  drunk  the  night 
before.  Encountering  the  policeman  the  reporter  often 
gets  a  good  part  of  the  intelligence  he  desires  without 
delay.  But  occasionally  the  reporter's  meager  in- 
formation is  news  to  the  representative  of  the  law,  in 
which  case,  should  the  occurrence  come  within  the 
scope  of  what  he  is  required  to  investigate,  the  police- 
man, for  his  own  protection,  starts  a  search,  and  the 
reporter  need  only  trail  along  behind  to  get  his  in- 
formation. Even  w^hen  the  occurrence  which  the  re- 
porter is  looking  into  is  one  that  does  not  call  for  the 
policeman's  attention,  the  reporter  can  often  with  suc- 
cess apply  to  him  for  a  little  assistance.  Doors  that 
are  slammed  in  the  reporter's  face  usually  open  wide 
for  the  representative  of  the  law,  for  few  persons  have 
the  hardihood  to  tell  a  policeman  to  go  about  his  busi- 
ness, no  matter  how  far  he  exceeds  his  authority. 

Failing  to  find  the  policeman  he  seeks,  or  finding 
him,  but  getting  little  or  nothing,  the-  reporter  can, 
where  the  event  he  is  investigating  calls  for  police 
inquiry,  apply  at  the  nearest  station  house  with  a 
fair  prospect  that  he  will  reap  some  reward.  The 
sergeant,  already  possessing  the  information  desired, 
will,  except  in  case  of  a  robbery  or  something  which 
the  police  wish  to  keep  secret,  hand  it  over  on  request, 
and  not  having  it.  he  will  detail  a  detective  or  a 
uniformed  policeman  to  make  an  investigation.  There 
are  assignments  having  to  do  with  fires,  accidents,  rob- 
beries, and  similar  events  which  a  reporter  can  cover 
without  calling  on  the  police,  but  the  circumspect  news- 


How  the  Reporters  Work  157 

gatherer  who  beheves  that  no  effort  is  wasted  insures 
himself  to  some  extent  against  defeat  by  calHng,  before 
he  starts  for  his  office,  at  the  station  house  of  the  pre- 
cinct in  which  he  is  working,  whenever  his  story  is  one 
that  may  possibly  have  interested  them.  A  great 
many  reporters  always  visit  the  station  house  first  of 
all,  which  saves  them  from  starting  their  own  inquiry 
empty-handed,  and  permits  them  to  get  down  to  de- 
tails without  delay. 

In  most  large  cities,  particularly  in  New  York,  the 
experienced  reporters  are  always  glad  to  help  a  be- 
ginner who  is  not  presumptuous  and  does  not  attempt 
to  sail  under  false  colors.  Because  of  this,  the  tyro 
who  falls  into  difficulty  on  one  of  his  early  assignments 
is  in  luck  if  he  meets  a  skillful  new^sgatherer  whose 
quest  is  the  same  as  his  own.  He  is  only  benefited 
temporarily  if  the  experienced  man,  having  been  at 
work  on  the  story,  turns  over  to  him  all  the  informa- 
tion he  needs,  and  in  one  way  he  is  harmed,  for  the 
experience  may  start  him  on  the  road  to  becoming  a 
dependent  ;  but  he  is  favored  by  fortune  if  he  meets 
the  tried  newsgatherer  when  both  are  fresh  on  the 
scene.  Of  course,  if  the  beginner  w-ere  accountable 
to  a  school-teacher  instead  of  a  city  editor,  he  might 
with  profit  to  himself  proceed  on  a  plan  of  his  own 
and  reject  proffered  aid,  but,  as  it  is,  he  cannot  afford 
to  let  anything  pass  that  wdll  add  to  his  efficiency.  A 
city  editor  concerns  himself  wdth  the  news  and  not 
with  the  reporter's  training,  and  the  quicker  the  novice 
ceases  to  be  a  stumbler  the  better  is  the  editor  pleased. 
The  new  reporter,  therefore,  wdio  gets  a  chance  to  profit 
by  another  man's  experience,  should  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  by  all  means.  If,  having  learned  the 
other  man's  methods,  he  can  improve  on  them,  there 


158  Making  a  Newspaper 

is  nothing  to  hinder  him  from  so  doing.  He  must 
understand,  though,  that  the  man  who  spends  his  time 
trying  to  evolve  new  methods  while  his  opponents, 
employing  the  best  they  have,  however  faulty,  are 
getting  the  news  which  he  is  not,  rarely  lasts  long 
enough  to  put  his  theories  into  practice.  Doubtful  ex- 
periments the  new  reporter  had  better  try  when  his  time 
is  his  own,  or  at  least,  when  he  is  after  a  story  for 
which  the  city  editor  is  not  waiting. 

It  is  when  the  beginner  is  sent  out  to  find  someone, 
unsupplied  w^ith  either  a  name  or  a  definite  address, 
that  he  most  needs  assistance.  Hopelessly  at  sea,  he 
must  admire  the  manner  in  which  the  experienced  re- 
porter interviews  in  quick  succession  policemen,  post- 
men, janitors,  grocerymen,  keepers  of  newsstands  who 
deliver  papers  to  regular  customers,  druggists,  watch- 
men, laundrymen,  and  any  other  persons  who  might 
be  expected  to  have  a  large  neighborhood  acquaintance. 
When  a  reporter  has  the  name  of  the  pefson  he  wishes 
to  see  or  inquire  about,  but  only  an  indefinite  address, 
such  as  a  certain  section  of  the  city  or  a  certain  street, 
a  canvass  of  the  laundrymen  alone  will  often  put  him 
on  the  right  track. 

The  pursuit  of  small  accidents,  trivial  fires,  and  other 
unimportant  happenings,  the  breaking-in  w^ork  of  every 
reporter,  is  interesting  for  a  while,  but  most  men  after 
six  months  of  it  are  found  doing  their  best  to  prove 
themselves  equal  to  more  exacting  tasks.  In  some 
offices  the  new  reporters  are,  as  soon  as  they  have  got 
their  bearings,  set  to  "covering  police  stations,''  and 
from  this  graduated  into  service  in  police  courts,  where 
they  may  be  allowed  to  remain  for  two  or  three 
years.  Police  court  reporting  is  hard  work,  not  uni- 
formly pleasant,  but  it  provides  a  training  that  is  ex- 


How  the  Reporters  Work  159 

tremely  valuable.  There  are  editors  who  hold  that 
no  man  can  reach  his  highest  efficiency  who  has  not 
had  a  year's  trial  at  it,  and  most  reporters  who  have 
had  the  experience  are  glad  of  it,  no  matter  how  they 
felt  whdle  the  court  was  the  scene  of  their  daily  labor. 
Not  detailed  to  a  police  court,  the  reporter  no  longer 
a  real  novice  is  assigned  to  perform  some  other  de- 
partment work,  such  as  looking  after  the  reports  made 
to  the  coroners'  office  or  collecting  the  news  disclosed 
at  the  headquarters  of  several  divisions  of  the  city 
government. 

In  offices  where  there  is  no  department  work  the  new 
reporters  are  sent  upon  more  important  assignments  as 
they  develop,  until  by  degrees  they  come  to  be  classed 
with  the  time-tried  general  workers.  Where  the  de- 
partment system  is  in  force  the  new  men  are  gradu- 
ated into  the  general  workers'  ranks  when  it  is  thought 
that  they  have  served  a  sufficient  apprenticeship,  or  as 
a  reward  for  an  especially  good  piece  of  reporting. 
Not  all  departments,  however,  are  looked  upon  as 
training  schools  for  beginners.  Some  of  them  require 
the  services  of  reporters  both  experienced  and  specially 
trained,  and  it  is  nothing  unusual  for  a  man  to  be 
drafted  into  one  of  these  places  and  kept  there  in- 
definitely. The  department  men  who  cover  the  re- 
sponsible posts  are  really  specialists,  and  between  a 
specialist  and  a  department  watcher  there  is  a  great 

gap. 

The  seasoned  reporters  are  the  men  who  get  the 
constant  change  and  excitement  which,  in  the  minds  of 
most  persons,  are  the  lot  of  every  nevvSpaper  worker. 
They  interview  statesmen,  politicians,  lawyers,  preach- 
ers, pugilists,  and  any  others  who  may  chance  to  come 
into  the  public  eye;  match  their  wits  against  those  of 


i6o  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  police  when  mysteries  are  to  be  solved ;  report  court 
trials  of  interest;  hasten  to  the  scenes  of  disasters,  be 
they  far  or  near;  collect  the  news  of  fires,  failures, 
panics,  parades,  shipwrecks,  yacht  races,  public  meet- 
ings, prizefights,  weddings,  and  deaths,  and  occa- 
sionally get  the  chance  to  go  out  as  war  correspondents. 
A  general  worker  thinks  nothing  of  reporting  a  mur- 
der, a  wedding,  and  a  missionary  meeting  in  the  after- 
noon and  spending  half  the  night  in  the  street  in  front 
of  the  house  where  a  widely  known  man  is  lying  close 
to  death ;  and  he  is  not  dismayed  when  without  previous 
notice  he  is  hurried  off  to  some  place  half  a  hundred 
miles  away,  to  report  a  train  wreck  or  to  look  into  the 
causes  of  an  epidemic.  He  takes  everything  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and,  thoroughly  competent,  never  loses  his 
head.  Every  time  he  leaves  the  office  he  hopes  to 
encounter  a  "big"  story,  and  when  he  does  find  himself 
face  to  face  with  a  great  disaster  or  some  other  occur- 
rence that  offers  news  almost  without  end,  he  thinks 
not  of  the  dif^culty  he  v/ill  have  in  getting  a  story,  but 
of  the  opportunity  offered  to  get  a  good  one.  The 
more  news  there  is  to  gather  the  less  need  there  will  be 
to  waste  time  looking  for  details,  he  tells  himself,  as 
he  starts  in  to  seek  out  the  main  facts.  Some  of  the 
reporters  w^ho  were  sent  to  Johnstown,  Pennsylvania, 
in  1889,  when  that  city  was  destroyed  by  a  flood,  and 
over  four  thousand  persons  were  killed,  began  to  write 
their  stories  when  they  had  been  on  the  scene  only  a 
half  hour.  The  bodies  scattered  everywhere  gave  them 
an  idea  of  the  great  loss  of  life;  the  piles  of  debris 
and  wrecked  buildings  bore  testimony  to  the  pecuniary 
damage,  and  every  survivor  was  able  to  tell  whence 
came  the  flood.  Had  the  reporters  waited  to  count  the 
dead  and  ascertain  the  money  loss  accurately  before 


How  the  Reporters  Work  i6i 

starting  to  write,  their  papers  would  not  have  heard 
from  them  for  weeks. 

Whether  a  man  becomes  a  poHce  reporter,  a  gatherer 
of  financial  news,  a  political  writer,  a  specialist  in  some 
other  line,  or  an  all-around  worker  not  decidedly 
developed  in  any  one  direction  depends,  in  most  in- 
stances, upon  chance.  The  only  way  in  which  a  novice 
can  himself  settle  the  character  of  his  assignments  is 
for  him  to  bring  with  him  into  the  office  some  special 
training.  Finding  that  he  has  a  lawyer  on  his  staff, 
the  city  editor  turns  the  legal  training  to  account  by 
giving  the  man  court  trials  to  report;  the  physician 
gets  work  among  the  hospitals  or  in  the  slums,  and  in 
times  of  an  epidemic  shines  probably  brighter  than 
any  other  newsgatherer ;  the  recruit  from  a  bank  or 
broker's  office  gets  financial  work.  The  individual 
who  is  specially  fitted  for  no  one  place  the  editor  pushes 
into  the  vacancy  that  most  needs  filling,  no  matter  what 
the  niche  is.  Coming  into  an  office  to-day  a  new  re- 
porter may  be  detailed  to  a  police  court.  Had  he  been 
engaged  yesterday  he  might  have  got  a  better  assign- 
ment now  covered,  that  of  meeting  incoming  steam- 
ships. 

Chance  having  determined  the  character  of  a  man's 
assignments  custom  helps  to  keep  him  in  his  place,  for 
the  city  editor,  ever  striving  to  get  a  man's  best,  never 
details  his  w^orkers  haphazard.  Telling  a  man  to  look 
after  a  murder  mystery  one  day  and  getting  satisfac- 
tory results  from  him,  he  takes  it  for  granted  next  day 
that  the  man  knows  more  about  the  murder  than  does 
any  of  the  other  reporters,  and  details  him  on  the  same 
assignment.  This  he  keeps  up,  the  man  doing  his  work 
well,  until  the  story  ceases  to  be  of  news  value,  or  until 
it  reaches  the  stage  where  it  can  be  covered  by  a  re- 


1 62  Making  a  Newspaper 

porter  of  less  experience.  But  the  very  fact  that  a 
reporter  is  kept  on  the  same  story  day  after  day,  once 
it  has  been  placed  in  his  hands,  operates  perhaps  more 
than  anything  else  to  give  the  new  men  opportunities 
to  show  what  they  can  do.  A  beginner,  no  matter 
how  bright  he  appeared  and  how  willing,  would  never, 
while  there  were  experienced  men  in  the  office,  be 
detailed  to  cover  a  story  that  involved  the  robbery  of 
a  bank  of  a  large  amount  of  money  by  a  trusted  officer, 
and  the  suicide  of  the  thief  when  exposure  threatened. 
Yet,  having  started  out  with  nothing  more  in  prospect 
than  the  gathering  of  material  for  a  seemingly  routine 
death  notice,  a  new  reporter  might  easily  within  a  few 
days  find  himself  engaged  on  a  story  of  this  very  kind. 
Getting  a  story  which  grows,  a  novice  need  only  grow 
with  it  to  win  quick  advancement. 

Reporters  are  always  expected  to  have  a  fair  knowl- 
edge of  the  news  that  has  already  been  printed,  and  even 
at  the  beginning  of  the  day,  the  city  editor  reprimands 
any  newsgatherer  who  gives  evidence  that  he  is  not 
familiar  with  the  history  of  the  story  upon  which  he 
is  detailed.  In  New  York  every  reporter  and  every 
editor,  too,  reads  the  Sun;  and  it  is  because  of  this  that 
the  Siin  is  often  referred  to  as  "the  newspaper  man's 
paper."  It  rarely  overlooks  anything  and  its  stories 
are  both  concise  and  entertaining. 

Frequently  when  a  story  requires  a  number  of  re- 
porters to  assemble  in  one  place,  as  during  the  search 
of  the  ruins  of  a  burned  building,  they  work  in  ''com- 
bination," exchange  news  and  relieve  each  other  for 
lunch  or  to  permit  visits  to  a  telephone ;  and  the  worst 
violation  of  newspaper  ethics  possible  for  a  reporter 
is  to  "hold  out  on"  a  combination  and  send  news  to 
his  office  without  making  it  known  to  all.     Doing  this 


How  the  Reporters  Work  163 

he  may  make  some  of  the  other  reporters  lose  their 
places  and  will  certainly  cause  them  to  be  censured. 
The  reporter  who  does  play  false  with  other  news- 
gatherers,  accepts  their  gleanings  and  remains  silent 
about  his  own,  pays  dearly  for  his  temporary  triumph. 
He  is  thereafter  a  marked  man,  and  unless  he  is  for- 
given and  restored  to  good  standing,  which  is  unusual, 
his  newspaper  career  is  pretty  sure  to  come  to  a  speedy 
termination.  Particulars  of  his  action  having  been 
circulated,  every  other  reporter  in  the  city  will  strive  to 
the  utmost  to  land  him  in  a  series  of  defeats,  and  with 
so  many  against  one  the  defeats  are  sure  to  come.  If 
he  survive  the  defeats  he  sooner  or  later  falls  to  a 
''plant,"  a  sensational  story  manufactured  and  spread 
for  his  benefit,  and  either  involves  his  paper  in  a  libel 
suit  or  makes  it  appear  ridiculous.  Only  when  a  re- 
porter plays  traitor  with  a  combination  is  he  placed 
under  the  ban.  The  man  who  does  not  care  to  work 
with  the  other  reporters  on  any  particular  story  is  re- 
garded as  a  fair  foe  if  he  makes  it  known  where  he 
stands  in  the  beginning,  and,  having  announced  him- 
self, need  fear  no  skulking. 

The  most  valuable  reporter  is  the  out-and-out  special- 
ist, the  man  who  in  some  particular  line  is  the  best 
reporter  in  the  city,  or  at  least  the  best  on  his  paper. 
There  are  no  indispensable  workers  in  a  newspaper 
office,  but  the  specialist  who  is  thoroughly  competent 
comes  as  close  to  being  indispensable  as  it  is  possible 
for  a  newspaper  worker  to  be.  His  paper  can  get 
along  without  him,  but  he  fits  into  a  place  that  cannot 
be  filled  by  everyone.  If  he  makes  a  mistake  his  ac- 
complishments demand  that  he  get  other  than  offhand 
judgment,  and  if  he  is  placed  in  the  balance  the  ques- 
tion must  arise :    "Where  is  his  successor?"    The  all- 


164  Making  a  Newspaper 

around  worker,  or  the  ordinary  department  watcher, 
is  not  thus  safeguarded.  His  hold  on  his  place  is  meas- 
ured exactly  by  the  manner  in  which  he  has  performed 
his  latest  task;  any  other  all-around  worker  can  step 
into  his  shoes  the  moment  they  are  declared  vacant, 
and  in  every  large  city  there  are  always  dozens  of 
reporters  who  are  out  of  emplo3^ment.  In  New  York 
an  editor  could  easily  in  a  single  day  procure  twenty- 
five  newsgatherers,  and  it  is  often  said  that  in  a  like 
period  an  owner  could  engage  an  entire  newspaper 
staff,  from  editor-in-chief  down.  But  in  neither  event 
would  there  be  a  rush  of  high-grade  specialist  report- 
ers. There  are  not  many  of  them,  and  those  that  do 
exist  are  never  hard  put  for  employment. 

That  there  are  so  few  reporters  who  are  thorough 
specialists  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  most  reporters 
do  not  get  the  chance  to  develop  themselves  as  they 
would  like.  If  a  man  who  wishes  to  become  a  Wall 
Street  writer  is  put  into  a  police  court,  he  can  make  no 
direct  progress  toward  his  ambition  so  long  as  his 
station  remains  unchanged.  The  police  court  demands 
his  entire  attention  from  early  morning,  and  obviously 
he  cannot  familiarize  himself  with  the  financial  district 
and  the  people  there  either  by  going  down  at  night  and 
looking  at  the  closed  buildings,  or  by  reading  the  stories 
written  by  the  men  already  in  the  field.  In  Wall  Street 
almost  every  door  is  guarded  by  a  special  policeman  or 
a  watchman,  and  outside  of  the  private  offices  of  the 
men  the  papers  talk  about  are  secretaries.  To  stran- 
gers these  persons  rarely  unbend,  and  they  look  askance 
especially  upon   unknown   newspaper   representatives. 

Even  a  reporter  of  twenty  years'  experience  knows 
no  easy  method  of  collecting  news;  always  he  must 
accommodate  himself  to  circumstances.     Told  to  re- 


How  the  Reporters  Work  165 

port  a  court  trial  he  is  compelled  to  go  to  the  courtroom 
and  follow  the  proceedings  closely,  no  matter  how  dry 
they  be,  and  sent  to  look  into  an  accident  he  must  ask 
questions  and  keep  on  the  trail  wherever  it  leads.  For 
all  his  ability  and  all  his  experience,  he  cannot,  if  by 
chance  he  is  sent  on  a  disagreeable  errand,  avoid  the 
unpleasant  part  of  it;  and  no  reporter  is  exempt  from 
being  sent  on  small  errands.  Even  the  one  who  regu- 
larly gets  the  best  assignment  the  city  editor  has  to 
offer  gets  little  on  dull  days,  and  never  is  he  allowed  to 
remain  idle  because  there  is  no  task  suited  to  his  ability. 
The  war  correspondent  in  times  of  peace  is  glad  to  go 
to  fires,  and  he  gets  his  full  share  of  school-board  meet- 
ings and  accidents. 

Incidentally,  the  daily-paper  war  correspondent  is  a 
much  misunderstood  person.  To  some  extent  he  is  a 
myth,  for  the  daily  newspapers  of  the  United  States 
have  war  correspondents  only  when  there  are  wars. 
When  the  fighting  begins,  or  when  it  promises  to  begin 
soon,  the  managing  editor,  looking  over  his  workers, 
picks  out  several  able  newsgatherers  who  have  good 
health  and  rugged  constitutions  and  sends  them  to  the 
front.  So  long  as  these  men  are  aw^ay  they  are  war 
correspondents.  When  they  return  they  take  up  their 
old  tasks.  During  the  Spanish-American  War  the. 
New  York  papers  sent  out  as  correspondents  copy 
readers,  editorial  writers,  city  editors,  race-track  re- 
porters, general  work  reporters,  department  men,  and 
even  copy  boys.  At  least  one  copy  boy,  too,  gave  a 
good  account  of  himself,  for  remaining  in  the  back- 
ground one  day,  when  the  bullets  were  flying,  he  was 
able  later  to  send  to  his  paper  a  fair  account  of  the 
battle,  and  the  intelligence  that  the  man  for  whom  he 
was  supposed  to  run  errands,  not  so  discreet  as  him- 


1 66  Making  a  Newspaper 

self,  had  been  badly  wounded  and  was  out  of  service. 
It  was  after  this  that  several  editors  gave  notice  that 
they  valued  a  whole  copy  boy  more  than  an  incapaci- 
tated star  reporter,  and  that  any  newsgatherer  who  ran 
unnecessary  risk  while  on  an  assignment,  thus  exposing 
his  paper  to  defeat,  would  be  summarily  discharged. 

A  reporter  who  wishes  to  hold  his  place  and  is 
ambitious  casts  about  him,  when  he  is  detailed  to  get 
a  piece  of  news,  not  for  an  easy  method  but  for  one  that 
is  safe  and  sure.  Even  when  his  task  is  an  apparently 
simple  one  the  experienced  reporter  looks  at  it  from 
all  sides  to  make  certain  that  it  is  not  harder  than  it 
appears  to  be,  and  he  considers  nothing  too  much 
trouble,  for  saved  steps,  he  knows,  often  cost  dearly. 
Detailed  to  investigate  a  sudden  death  he  does  not  give 
up  until  he  has  satisfied  himself  that  it  is  not  a  case  of 
suicide  or  murder,  and  when  he  gets  straightforward 
answers  to  straightforward  questions,  he  wonders 
whether  there  is  something  under  the  surface,  and 
does  his  best  to  find  out.  He  verifies  so  far  as  he  can 
every  statement  made  to  him  and  is  slow  to  decide  that 
he  has  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth. 
When  he  is  gathering  material  for  a  death  notice,  for 
example,  a  reporter  cannot  be  too  cautious,  and  unless 
he  knows  the  dead  person's  history  from  end  to  end  it 
will  be  wise  for  him  before  he  starts  for  his  office  to 
make  a  few  judicious  inquiries  among  persons  not 
directly  interested,  just  to  make  sure  that  something 
has  not  been  withheld.  If  he  does  this  he  will  not 
suffer  the  experience  of  one  young  reporter  who,  after 
interviewing  the  son  of  a  man  who  had  just  died, 
wrote  a  commonplace  obituary  notice  only  to  learn  to 
his  consternation  next  day  that  the  subject  of  his 
notice  had  twenty  years  before  been  the  defendant  in 


How  the  Reporters  Work  167 

an  extremely  sensational  murder  trial.  Of  course,  the 
son  had  avoided  all  reference  to  the  affair. 

The  danger  to  which  a  newsgatherer  exposes  him- 
self when  he  takes  a  chance  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
experience  of  a  New  York  reporter,  a  descriptive 
writer  of  far  more  than  ordinary  ability,  who  w^as 
one  day  sent  uptown  to  cover  an  exhibition  by  the  life- 
saving  corps  of  the  fire  department.  Having  written 
and  sent  to  his  office  a  story  which  covered  most  of  the 
drill  and  finding  that  only  a  few  minutes  remained 
before  the  time  set  for  printing  the  last  edition  of  his 
paper,  this  reporter,  having  previously  made  an  en- 
gagement to  meet  a  friend,  told  himself  that  there  was 
nothing  more  to  do  and  started  off.  Only  a  minute 
or  two  after  he  had  gone  a  team  of  horses  attached 
to  a  fire  engine,  becoming  frightened,  dashed  into  the 
crowd  and  trampled  a  number  of  persons.  The  only 
paper  in  town  which  did  not  get  out  an  extra  was  th^ 
one  which  the  reporter  who  had  decided  to  take  a 
chance  represented,  and  an  hour  after  he  reached  his 
office  next  day  he  was  out  of  work.  Another  story 
that  is  often  told  in  New  York  deals  with  a  reporter 
w^ho,  through  luck,  was  enabled  to  score  a  good  beat. 
Sent  to  a  banquet  one  night  he  found,  soon  after  12 
o'clock,  that  all  the  other  newsgatherers  had  left. 
Before  he  could  gain  the  door  himself  there  was  a  cry 
and  a  fall  at  one  of  the  tables,  and  making  an  investi- 
gation he  learned  that  one  of  the  distinguished  guests 
had  dropped  dead  of  heart  disease. 

Because  he  is  careful  a  reporter  is  often  able  to  make 
a  great  deal  out  of  what  at  first  looked  like  a  very 
ordinary  assignment,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  following 
incident:  A  newsgatherer  who  was  sent  to  report  a 
church  wedding,  having  his  suspicions  aroused  by  the 


1 68  Making  a  Newspaper 

anxious  manner  in  which  the  relatives  of  the  bride- 
groom, a  wealthy  young  man,  insisted  that  the  re- 
porters should  occupy  seats  well  toward  the  front, 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  another  reporter  which 
provided  for  an  exchange  of  news  after  the  ceremony, 
and  slipping  away  unobserved,  stationed  himself  where 
he  could  watch  the  doors.  His  suspicions  that  all 
was  not  right  were  further  aroused  when  he  found  a 
couple  of  private  detectives  on  guard,  and  they  were 
verified  when  the  detectives,  acting  on  a  signal  given 
by  a  friend  of  the  bridegroom,  turned  away  a  young 
woman  who  tried  to  enter.  After  pleading  in  vain 
she  began  to  weep,  and  then  started  off,  the  detectives 
having  interceded  when  a  policeman  threatened  to 
arrest  her,  saying  that  publicity  was  to  be  avoided. 
-Around  the  corner  the  reporter  got  her  story,  and  while 
it  was  scandal,  it  was  news  of  the  kind  his  paper 
wanted,  and  he  and  his  friend  in  the  church  with  whom 
he  shared  his  information  scored  beats  that  caused 
much  comment. 

News  was  once  defined  as  "Fresh  information  of 
something  that  has  lately  taken  place,"  but  in  these  days 
when  the  newspapers  are  steadily  encroaching  on  the 
position  once  occupied  exclusively  by  the  magazines, 
news  is  regarded  as  anything  that  is  of  interest.  A 
reporter  of  the  first  class  because  he  has  a  clear  idea 
as  to  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  because  he  can  con- 
vert himself  into  a  thoroughly  representative  member 
of  the  body  known  as  the  public,  can  find  news  any- 
where. Not  what  is  known  in  editorial  circles  as 
"must,"  perhaps,  but  interesting  reading  of  some  kind. 
If  he  were  placed  on  a  desert  island  he  could  find 
something  to  write  about,  and  it  is  a  certainty  that  were 
he  rescued,  after  having  been  so  placed,  one  of  his 


How  the  Reporters  Work  169 

first  moves  when  lie  ^ot  back  to  civilization  would 
be  to  make  arrangements  to  get  his  story  into  print. 
In  New  York  City  alone  there  are  dozens  of  reporters 
who  would  jump  at  the  chance  to  be  marooned  on  a 
desert  island  for  a  week  or  two,  and,  were  the  man  to 
be  marooned  to  be  selected  by  competition,  the  re- 
porters striving  for  the  honor  would  be  equaled  in 
number  by  the  magazine  writers. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  a  beginner  in  a  news- 
paper office  will  see  possible  news  at  every  turn  as  does 
the  veteran,  but  the  novice  should  keep  it  before  him 
that  news  is  not  necessarily  positive.  If  a  man  falls 
off  the  roof  of  a  six-story  building  and  is  killed  or  badly 
injured,  the  occurrence  is  certainly  news,  although  it  is 
not  very  important,  for  accidents  of  this  general  char- 
acter are  of  daily  occurrence  in  the  large  cities.  But 
were  a  man  to  fall  from  the  top  of  a  six-story  building 
and  escape  unhurt,  the  occurrence  would  be  regarded 
by  all  editors  as  news  of  far  more  than  ordinary  worth. 
A  recital  of  the  unexpected  and  miraculous  almost  al- 
ways eclipses  a  story  dealing  with  matter  of  fact  or 
ordinary  events.  How  completely  a  beginner  may 
overlook  this  is  illustrated  by  the  conduct  of  a  young 
reporter  who,  sent  to  cover  the  launching  of  a  ship, 
strolled  into  his  office  a  few  hours  later  and  announced 
that  the  story  had  "failed  to  pan  out,"  and  that  there 
was  not  much  to  write.  "Why  not?"  asked  the  city 
editor.  "Well,"  replied  the  reporter,  "something  went 
wrong  and  the  ship  stuck  on  the  ways.  They  hope  to 
get  her  into  the  water  to-morrow."  Another  story 
of  the  same  character,  often  laughed  over  by  the  re- 
porters of  a  certain  Western  city,  has  to  do  with  a 
beginner,  who,  having  been  told  to  look  after  a  public 
exhibition  of  walking  on  the  tight  rope,  returned  with 


170  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  information  that  he  had  material  for  a  paragraph 
only,  as  the  exhibition  had  not  taken  place.  "The 
man  who  was  to  do  the  walking,"  he  remarked  inno- 
cently, ''fell  out  of  bed  this  morning  and  broke  his  leg." 
The  idea  that  there  was  news  in  a  professional  acrobat, 
who  constantly  risked  his  life,  being  hurt  by  a  fall  from 
his  bed  apparently  never  entered  the  reporter's  head. 

Every  finished  reporter  is  alive  to  the  value  of  the 
unexpected,  unique,  odd,  grotesque,  sorrowful,  and 
humorous,  but  the  search  for  side  issues  which  may  be 
introduced  and  made  prominent  is  conducted  most 
assiduously  by  the  representatives  of  the  papers  which 
belong  to  the  sensational  class.  These  reporters  are 
ever  on  the  lookout  for  wonders,  and  the  oftener  they 
find  that  for  which  they  look  the  better  are  their 
editors  satisfied.  Sensations  must  be  provided,  and  no 
reporter  rests  under  the  mistaken  idea  that  their  col- 
lection can  be  left  entirely  to  other  members  of  the 
staff.  Employed  on  a  sensational  paper,  a  reporter, 
therefore,  usually  looks  upon  his  assignment  as  given 
to  him  by  his  city  editor  as  nothing  more  than  a  hint. 
Told  to  look  into  a  suicide,  it  does  not  occur  to  him 
to  get  the  facts  in  plain  sight,  or  where  all  is  not  clear 
to  let  the  evidence  lead  to  a  dull  verdict.  First,  he 
endeavors  to  squeeze  the  suicide  into  a  semblance  of 
a  murder.  Failing  in  this,  or  the  facts  absolutely  pro- 
hibiting the  attempt,  he  tries  to  find  something  that 
will  make  the  causes  leading  to  the  suicide  a  mystery. 
Not  meeting  with  success  in  this  direction,  he  asks 
whether  it  is  not  true  that  some  other  members  of  the 
suicide's  family  have  killed  themselves.  Still  failing 
to  score,  he  goes  over  a  list  of  recent  self-inflicted 
deaths  in  an  effort  to  discover  the  existence  of  a 
"suicide  club,"  and,  unsuccessful  here,  nerves  himself 


How  the  Reporters  Work  171 

and  perhaps  lands  an  even  more  fanciful  tale.  When 
the  aggressive  papers  are  presenting  stories  as  attract- 
ive mysteries  and  bolstering  up  their  contentions  with 
plausible  arguments,  the  reporters  and  city  editors  of 
the  sedate  publications  must  make  concessions  unless 
they  can  present  counter-attractions,  for  the  managing 
editors  and  owners  will  not  forever  have  their  demands 
for  explanations  set  aside  by  the  words  "yellow  fake." 
At  the  end  of  a  month  they  remember  only  that  they 
have  had  to  call  the  city  editor  and  those  under  him 
to  account  many,  many  times.  Because  of  this  the 
reporters  of  the  sedate  papers  are  under  constant 
temptation.  If  they  take  the  stories  concocted  by 
their  more  strenuous  co-workers,  and  the  stories  are 
usually  free  to  all  where  the  reporters  are  work- 
ing on  a  big  assignment,  they  give  satisfaction  and 
run  little  risk  of  detection.  Refusing  to  take  the 
stories  offered,  they  are  sure,  when  the  sensations  are 
sprung,  to  stand  under  suspicion  of  having  been  beaten, 
until  they  have  had  opportunity  to  explain;  and  a  re- 
porter is  always  worried  when  he  has  to  make  a  series 
of  explanations,  for  he  fears  that  after  a  time  the  edi- 
tors will  tell  themselves  that  where  there  is  so  much 
smoke  there  must  be  some  lire,  and  dispense  with  his 
services  on  general  principles. 

While  there  is  no  easy  method  of  gathering  news, 
many  assignments  which  stagger  the  beginner  are  easy 
matters  to  the  experienced  man.  Suppose  that  two 
men,  a  beginner  and  an  experienced  worker,  are  sent 
out  from  different  offices  to  ascertain  whether  it  is  true, 
as  is  rumored,  that  a  w^ell-known  man  is  aiming  to 
capture  a  certain  political  office.  An  evasive  reply 
from  the  man  will  land  the  novice  high  and  dry.  But 
such  a  reply  only  starts  the  old  hand  at  newsgathering 


172  Making  a  Newspaper 

off  to  see  the  man's  close  friends,  his  enemies,  the 
poHtical  leaders,  and  the  political  gossips.  By  the 
time  he  is  finished  with  them  he  usually  has  the  in- 
formation for  which  he  started,  and  a  great  deal 
more.  Even  when  the  subject  of  the  rumor  gives  a 
straightforward  reply  the  seasoned  reporter  outclasses 
the  beginner,  for  the  beginner,  returning  to  his  office, 
can  write  little  more  than  a  paragraph,  whereas  the 
experienced  man  can  build  a  long  story  about  the 
reply,  telling,  if  the  man  has  acknowledged  that  he  de- 
sires the  office,  what  chance  he  has  of  getting  it,  what 
the  party  leaders  think  of  his  candidacy,  and  who  his 
strongest  opponents  will  be.  If  the  man  denies  that  he 
wishes  the  office  the  good  reporter  writes  about  the 
causes  leading  to  his  decision,  the  probable  origin  of 
the  rumor,  and  the  candidates  who  really  do  wish  to  get 
the  place.  The  newsgatherer  of  long  service  is  always 
resourceful.  Defeated  in  a  dozen  attempts  to  get  a 
piece  of  news,  he  forms  a  dozen  new  plans  and  keeps 
on  working  until  he  attains  his  end,  or  until  the  time  at 
his  disposal  expires.  Not  once  in  a  year  does  an  out- 
and-out  star  reporter  acknowledge  that  he  is  at  his 
wit's  end. 

If  a  reporter  is  assigned  to  a  story  which  disappears 
in  thin  air,  when,  for  example,  he  finds  that  a  rumor 
he  has  been  sent  to  investigate  is  without  foundation, 
he  says  that  he  is  on  a  ''pipe"  or  a  "pipe  dream." 
Every  day  reporters  get  assignments  which  both  they 
and  the  city  editor  are,  at  the  time  the  assignments 
are  given,  pretty  sure  will  come  to  nothing;  but  the 
city  editor  takes  no  chances  and  the  discreet  reporters 
follow  his  example.  The  worst  thing  that  can  happen 
to  a  reporter  next  to  involving  his  paper  in  a  libel  suit 
is  to  ''fall  down"  on  a  story,  to  miss  a  piece  of  news 


How  the  Reporters  Work  173 

he  was  sent  to  get  and  thus  cause  his  paper  to  be 
''beaten"  or  "scooped;"  and  the  fear  of  falhng  down  is 
with  a  reporter  always,  day  and  night,  awake  and 
asleep.  Take  the  case  of  the  reporter  who  is  detailed 
to  report  a  bank  failure.  Arriving  at  the  bank  build- 
ing he  finds  in  the  street  before  it  a  crowd  largely  made 
up  of  persons  who,  having  deposited  money  in  the 
institution,  are  struggling  to  get  to  the  closed  and 
locked  doors.  No  one  is  inclined  to  make  way,  but 
he  must  push  his  way  through,  and  after  copying  the 
notice  pasted  on  the  doors,  make  an  effort  to  see  some- 
one inside  who  can  tell  him  what  caused  the  failure, 
how  much  money  is  involved,  and  whether  or  not  the 
institution  will  resume  business.  While  there  are  a 
hundred  questions  that  he  would  like  to  ask,  the  prob- 
abilities are  that,  holding  his  ow^n  against  the  crowd, 
and  getting  a  note  directed  to  one  of  the  bank  officers 
inside  the  doors — and  he  will  have  trouble  enough 
doing  this,  maybe  pounding  on  the  doors  to  attract 
attention  in  defiance  of  a  policeman — he  will,  in  a  few 
minutes,  be  told  by  the  watchman  or  clerk  who  took  his 
missive  that  "there  is  nothing  to  say."  The  bank  ex- 
aminer, if  reached,  promises  that  "there  w^ill  be  a  state- 
ment to-morrow."  But  the  reporter  cannot  w^ait  until 
the  morrow  for  news;  he  must  get  something  some- 
where without  delay.  Convinced  that  the  bank  build- 
ing is  barren  ground,  he  procures  a  list  of  the  institu- 
tion's directors  and  starts  to  search  for  them.  But  try 
as  he  will  he  cannot  find  them  all,  and  those  he  does 
find  are  rarely  communicative.  The  scraps  they  give 
him,  though,  are  eagerly  seized  upon.  While  he  is 
moving  about  he  questions  everyone  he  can  reach  who 
might  know  something  about  the  failure,  and  having 
exhausted  his  resources  he  finds  that  his  gleanings 


174  Making  a  Newspaper 

pieced  together  give  a  pretty  fair  idea  of  the  situation. 
But  he  does  not  know  what  the  rival  reporters  have 
learned.  Whatever  it  is,  he  is  expected  to  have,  when 
he  reaches  his  office,  as  much  as  all  of  them  put  to- 
gether, for  his  editor  is  not  going  to  compare  his 
story  with  that  of  one  of  his  rivals.  The  facts  in  all  of 
their  articles  will  be  arrayed  against  those  in  his,  and 
he  will  be  called  to  account  if  anything  of  importance 
has  escaped  him. 

If  he  works  on  a  morning  paper,  the  reporter  en- 
gaged on  the  bank  failure  is  kept  busy  until  well  in  the 
night  writing  his  story.  After  it  is  finished  he  hands 
it  to  the  man  occupying  the  city  editor's  chair,  and  un- 
less there  is  especial  need  of  reporters  is  allowed  to  go 
home.  He  is  tired,  but  going  to  bed  he  does  not  always 
rest  well,  for  having  worked  under  pressure  he  is 
nervous  and  restless.  He  is  not  sure  that  he  did  not 
miss  the  most  important  fact  connected  with  the  fail- 
ure ;  however  hard  he  labored  he  has  no  guarantee  that 
someone  he  could  not  find  or  someone  who  refused  to 
give  him  information  has  not  told  a  rival  reporter 
and  proved  to  him  that  the  failure  was  caused  by  a 
thieving  cashier,  whereas  in  his  own  account  he  at- 
tributed it  merely  to  bad  management.  Bank  failures 
are  not  weekly  occurrences ;  but  murders,  big  fires,  rob- 
beries, embezzlements,  accidents,  elopements,  strange 
disappearances,  and  many  other  similar  happenings 
are,  and,  for  the  reporter,  these  things  and  bank  failures 
are  in  the  same  class. 

The  reporter  for  an  evening  paper  who  is  engaged 
on  a  bank  failure  is  expected  to  cover  the  ground  just 
as  thoroughly  as  is  the  morning  newspaper  man,  but  he 
has  much  less  time  in  which  to  do  the  work,  and  while 
he  is  searching  for  information  he  is  frequently  inter- 


How  the  Reporters  Work  175 

rupted.  Editions  are  issued  from  his  office  at  inter- 
vals of  a  few  hours,  and  it  is  incumbent  upon  him  to 
furnish  fresh  news  for  each  one.  Employed  on  most 
papers,  he  is  required,  if  the  bank  is  not  more  than  a 
fifteen-  or  twenty-minute  journey  from  his  office,  to 
go  to  his  office  to  write  his  main  story,  and  to  drop  in 
frequently  afterward  to  add  to  it.  As  he  is  held  re- 
sponsible for  all  that  goes  on  around  the  bank  building, 
and  is  expected  to  call  on  directors  and  others  who  may 
be  scattered  over  the  city,  there  is  plenty  of  cause  for 
him  to  worry,  and  he  feels  very  often  before  the  day 
is  over  that  his  editor  is  taking  it  for  granted  that  he 
can  be  in  two  or  three  places  and  doing  two  or  three 
things  at  one  time.  When  he  is  too  far  from  his  office 
to  visit  it  frequently  a  reporter  does  his  writing,  if  he 
cannot  get  permission  to  use  a  desk  in  an  office  or 
a  store,  while  sitting  on  the  steps  of  some  build- 
ing, in  a  hallway,  or  on  a  packing-box,  and  hands 
his  manuscript  over  to  a  district  messenger  for 
delivery.  Reporters  employed  on  a  few  afternoon 
papers  are  not  only  permitted,  but  are  expected 
to  use  the  telephone  rather  than  go  to  their  of- 
fices, even  when  they  are  in  their  immediate  vicinity; 
but  papers  which  employ  the  telephone  continually  are 
particularly  demanding.  They  want  fresh  news  at  ex- 
tremely short  intervals,  and,  usually  of  the  aggressive 
type,  they  are  ill  satisfied  unless  they  receive  sensa- 
tions. An  evening  newspaper  reporter  is  on  the 
anxious  seat  all  the  time. 

But  an  editor  proceeds  on  the  theory  that  "nothing 
succeeds  like  success,"  and  the  reporter,  no  matter 
how  well  he  has  done  previously,  who  wakes  some 
morning  to  find  to  his  dismay  that  what  he  long 
feared  has  happened,  that  he  failed  to  get  the  most  im- 


176  Making  a  Newspaper 

portant  feature  of  the  news  while  another  reporter  did 
get  it,  goes  to  his  office  feeHng  that  so  far  as  one  news- 
paper is  concerned,  his  time  has  come.  It  may  be  that 
his  good  record  will  save  him,  but  he  knows  that  an- 
other occurrence  of  the  kind  will  throw  him  over  or 
surely  place  him  on  the  doubtful  list.  A  reporter  who 
has  missed  news  which  he  was  expected  to  get  may  be 
able  to  give  twenty  reasons  why  he  failed,  but  he 
cannot  do  other  than  admit  that  he  did  not  get  it.  The 
editor  argues,  ''You  got  it  or  you  did  not.  You  did 
not.  Therefore  you  must  pay  the  penalty."  All  re- 
porters are  aware  of  this,  and  occasionally  one,  learn- 
ing that  he  has  sustained  a  bad  defeat,  starts  out  to  look 
for  a  new  place  without  taking  the  trouble  to  go  to 
his  office  to  ascertain  what  the  men  in  authority  think 
about  the  matter. 

Bribes  are  not  openly  offered  to  newspaper  workers 
very  often,  but  they  are  frequently  submitted  in  round- 
about ways,  and  it  is  just  as  well  for  the  beginner  to 
be  on  his  guard  against  them;  the  experienced  man 
needs  no  caution,  as  he  is  fully  aware  that  his  honesty 
and  loyalty  constitute  a  good  share  of  his  stock-in- 
trade.  Even  as  a  matter  of  business,  bribe-taking  is 
not  a  fair  venture,  for  a  man  begins  to  break  away 
from  newspaper  work  the  moment  the  breath  of  sus- 
picion attaches  itself  to  him ;  an  editor  does  not 
demand  direct  evidence  when  the  word  "bribery"  comes 
to  his  ears;  all  that  he  asks  is  a  plausible  accusation. 
The  reporter  who  does  take  a  bribe  is  usually  sorry  for 
it,  for  the  person  who  is  mean  enough  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  his  dishonesty  is  not  above  demanding 
future  favors  under  threat  of  exposure.  In  most 
cases  there  would  be  no  bribery  anywhere  if  the 
desired  result  could  be  accomplished  by  either  a  com- 


How  the  Reporters  Work  177 

mand  or  a  threat;  a  bribe  is  nothing  more  tlian  a  last 
resort. 

Far  more  dangerous  than  the  plain  offerer  of  a 
bribe  is  the  individual  who  holds  out  gifts.  The  news- 
paper worker  cannot  keep  too  far  away  from  him,  for 
while  he  miscalls  his  presents  he  also  is  tardy  in  making 
his  requests.  Too  late  to  save  himself  the  reporter 
may  find  that  in  return  for  a  gift  of  small  value,  which 
he  never  desired  and  took  only  because  it  was  forced 
upon  him,  he  is  supposed  to  deliver  himself  body  and 
soul.  Almost  any  reporter  of  long  service  can  recall 
instances  where,  having  accepted  a  cigar  as  a  present, 
he  discovered  that  in  return  he  was  expected  to  per- 
form services  whose  value  in  money  would  purchase 
all  the  cigars  he  could  smoke  in  five  years.  The 
novice  needs  a  special  warning  against  allowing  him- 
self to  be  misled,  for  he  is  more  subject  to  temptation 
than  the  journeyman.  Half  the  scalawags  in  the 
country,  when  they  get  into  a  police  court,  imagine 
that  they  are  a  thousand  times  more  important  than 
they  are,  and  begin  to  ask  how  they  can  keep  their 
names  out  of  the  papers.  On  the  other  hand  there  is 
an  occasional  police-court  prisoner  who  takes  pains  to 
make  sure  that  the  reporters  will  not  overlook  him. 
It  is  as  good  as  a  play  to  see  a  bounder  in  a  police 
court  for  speeding  an  automobile.  His  time  for  glory, 
he  thinks,  has  come,  and  between  snobbish  airs  to 
establish  his  position  and  efforts  to  win  the  reporters' 
favor,  he  manages  to  tell  everyone  of  any  perception 
just  what  he  is.  The  worst  punishment  that  can  be- 
fall him  is  enforced  continuance  in  the  oblivion  to  which 
he  is  fitted  and  accustomed. 

Harder  to  deal  with  than  the  man  who  is  willing 
to  pay  for  silence  is  the  one  who  appeals  to  the  re- 


178  Making  a  Newspaper 

porter's  generosity  or  sympathy.  It  is  extremely 
difficult  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  person  who  says : 
''You  have  my  future  in  your  hands.  Tell  what  has 
happened  and  I  am  lost.  Keep  quiet  and  I  am  saved, 
and  no  one  will  suffer.  Think  of  my  family."  There 
may  be  times  when  it  is  proper  for  a  reporter  to  be 
moved  by  an  appeal,  but  he  should  never  forget  that 
he  is  paid  to  be  the  eyes  and  ears  of  a  newspaper  and 
that  the  editors  are  expected  to  get  a  chance  to  do 
any  suppressing  that  is  thought  necessary.  The  re- 
porter who  kills  news  on  his  own  responsibility  betrays 
his  paper,  no  matter  under  what  other  designation  his 
action  falls.  He  becomes  a  false  philanthropist,  or 
worse  yet,  what  is  known  as  a  "genial,"  a  man  who  is 
willing  to  do  the  right  thing  at  somebody's  else  ex- 
pense. 

Slow  as  he  should  be  in  making  promises  about  his 
own  actions,  a  reporter  should  never  allow  himself  to 
assume  the  responsibility  of  making  promises  for  his 
paper.  It  is  not  safe  even  in  seemingly  trivial  matters ; 
there  may  come  a  sudden  change  of  circumstances 
which  lifts  the  affair  concerned  into  prominence,  and 
again  editors  are  not  unlikely  to  make  a  great  stir  if  they 
discover  that  their  province  has  been  encroached  on, 
no  matter  how  little  the  harm  done.  If  a  green  re- 
porter dared  do  it,  he  could  insure  orders  for  a  long 
story  every  time  he  appeared  in  the  office  by  saying: 
"I  promised  not  to  say  much  about  this" ;  and  he  could 
kill  his  gleanings  just  as  readily  by  announcing:  'T 
promised  to  give  this  in  full."  How  particular  edi- 
tors are  in  this  direction  was  indelibly  impressed  on  the 
mind  of  a  young  Philadelphia  reporter  some  years  ago 
when,  returning  to  his  office  one  Saturday  night  after 
having  been  sent  to  get  material  for  a  death  notice. 


How  the  Reporters  Work  179 

he  told  his  city  editor  that  he  had  been  asked  to  hold 
the  notice  until  Monday  morning.  The  man  who 
was  dead,  it  seemed,  had  ^all  his  life  opposed  Sunday 
papers,  and  his  relatives  thought  it  would  be  disre- 
spectful to  his  memory  to  have  his  obituary  printed  in 
one  of  his  great  aversions.  "Did  you  promise?"  asked 
the  city  editor,  when  he  had  heard  the  story.  'T  had 
to,"  replied  the  reporter,  ''they  would  give  me  nothing 
until  I  did." 

"Well,"  said  the  city  editor,  "I  want  to  print  that 
story  to-night,  and  I  now  want  you  to  go  back  and  tell 
those  people  that  we  print  it  to-night  or  not  at  all. 
And  while  you  are  there  you  may  tell  them  that  you 
had  no  right  to  promise;  only  took  it  on  yourself." 

The  reporter's  reply  did  not  help  matters :  "It  is  five 
miles  to  the  house,"  he  said,  "and  the  rain  is  pouring. 
Besides,  I  have  the  story,  and  if  you  are  determined  to 
print  it  why  not  go  ahead  ?" 

"Young  man,"  the  city  editor  announced,  "I'm  will- 
ing to  have  you  drown  in  the  rain,  but  I  am  not  going 
to  let  you  make  this  paper  out  a  liar.  Your  promise 
was  no  good,  but  those  people  don't  know  it.  Now 
hurry !" 

The  reporter  returned  to  the  house,  explained  the 
situation,  and  got  the  desired  permission  although  it 
was  given  reluctantly,  and  wdiile  the  lesson  was  a  harsh 
one  it  promises  to  be  sufficient  for  his  entire  career. 

In  a  great  city  the  man  who  would  as  soon  be  dead  as 
out  of  the  public  eye  cannot  often  hold  the  reporters 
up  in  the  streets  and  cannot  gain  access  to  the  editors 
to  bore  them  with  his  self-centered  plans,  but  he  is  by 
no  means  unknown.  Indeed,  if  he  were  only  aware  of 
it,  the  reporters  keep  him  on  their  ready  reference  list; 
and  while  they  laugh  at  him  behind  his  back,  employ 


i8o  Making  a  Newspaper 

him  constantly  when  they  are  hard  up.  In  an  emer- 
gency he  can  be  counted  on  for  an  expression  on  any 
subject  under  the  sun. 

Another  man  for  the  reporter  to  guard  against  is  the 
one  who  is  wilhng  to  tell  him  just  what  he  desires  to 
know,  but  always  adds,  "Of  course,  this  is  not  for 
publication."  A  reporter  who  listens  to  a  story  and 
then  keeps  it  from  his  office  exposes  himself  to  many 
perils.  For  example,  his  city  editor  may  sometime  ask 
him  whether  he  has  ever  heard  the  story,  in  which  case 
he  is  compelled  to  lie  or  acknowledge  his  deceit,  or 
some  reporter  who  pays  no  attention  to  promises  may 
print  the  story  and  thus  subject  him  to  defeat;  and 
again,  having  given  his  promise,  he  is  placed  in  an  em- 
barrassing position  when  the  same  news  reaches  him 
from  another  source,  this  time  without  the  secrecy 
obligation,  for  printing  it  he  is  almost  certain  to  offend 
his  original  informant  and  lay  himself  open  to  the 
charge  of  breaking  his  word. 

While  hunting  for  new^s  a  reporter,  particularly  a 
department  man,  has  to  ask  direct  and  leading  ques- 
tions. It  is  not  sufficient  for  him  to  go  into  an  office 
and  ask,  "What  is  new^  to-day?"  or  "Have  you  any 
news?"  Most  people  do  not  know  news  when  they 
see  it  unless  it  is  in  print,  and  questions  like  these  are 
usually  futile.  Even  court  policemen  and  court  clerks, 
with  whom  reporters  come  into  daily  contact,  are  slow 
to  see  the  picturesque  or  odd.  They  can  see  the  news 
in  a  murder  trial,  in  the  sentencing  of  a  prisoner,  and 
in  a  row  in  the  courtroom,  but  tears  and  pitiful  leave- 
takings  are  to  them  only  everyday  incidents  not  worth 
remembering.  When  one  of  these  men  sends  for  a 
reporter,  saying  that  he  has  a  story  for  him,  it  is 
usually  to  tell  him  about  a  picnic,  the  presentation  of 


How  the  Reporters  Work  1 8 1 

a  token  of  esteem,  or  a  meeting  of  some  minor  political 
organization.  A  reporter  must  keep  himself  informed 
about  current  topics  and  ask  specifically  for,  what  he 
wants.  Interviewing  an  officer  of  a  corporation  after 
a  directors'  meeting  the  questions  should  be :  "What 
dividend  was  declared?"  ''Is  this  the  usual  dividend?" 
"Were  any  new  directors  elected?"  and  "Is  there  a 
minority  report?"  A  director  who  has  something  to 
conceal  is  not  going  to  unbosom  himself  when  he  is 
merely  asked:  "Did  anything  happen?" 

A  reporter  should  invariably  get  as  close  to  the 
source  of  news  as  he  can.  He  wastes  time  if  he  goes 
to  clerks  and  underlings;  generally  they  do  not  know 
what  is  going  on,  and  when  they  do  they  are  afraid 
to  speak.  Then,  too,  their  time  is  not  their  own,  and 
under  the  eyes  of  their  superiors  they  do  not  dare  en- 
gage in  conversation.  Going  into  a  bank  a  reporter 
should  aim  for  the  president  or  the  cashier.  They 
run  the  institution  and  are  held  accountable  for  its 
welfare,  and  although  they  may  be  reluctant  to  talk 
they  cannot  afford  to  create  suspicion  by  evasive  replies 
or  silence.  What  they  say,  also,  can  be  accepted  as 
correct,  for  their  positions  demand  that  they  speak  the 
truth.  There  are,  however,  many  places  where  a  re- 
porter will  find  it  to  his  advantage  to  keep  in  with  the 
subordinates,  for,  kindly  disposed,  they  can  often  give 
him  hints — "tips,"  the  reporters  say — that  certain 
things  are  in  the  wind.  For  the  purpose  of  verifying  a 
"tip,"  a  newsgatherer  cannot  go  too  high. 

A  reporter  cannot  afford  to  let  himself  be  put  off  or 
side-tracked.  W^hen  he  goes  to  a  man  to  ask  a  certain 
question  he  wants  to  ask  that  question,  and,  as  forcibly 
as  he  dare,  insist  on  an  answer.  If  he  does  not  under- 
stand the  answer,  he  should  say  so.     If  need  be,  he  can 


1 82  Making  a  Newspaper 

appear  to  be  a  trifle  dense ;  it  will  not  hurt  him  and  it 
may  produce  the  result.  Never  does  he  want  to  be 
so  bright  that  he  can  interpret  a  smile,  a  shrug  of  the 
shoulders,  or  a  wink,  as  long  as  he  is  in  a  position  to 
ask  questions.  Here  is  where  an  inexperienced  re- 
porter often  fails.  Sent  to  ask  an  embarrassing  ques- 
tion he  approaches  the  subject  evasively,  and  only  half 
states  his  case.  The  object  of  his  attentions,  quick  to 
see  his  advantage,  gives  the  reporter  a  little  flattery, 
answers  the  question  in  words  that  might  mean  any- 
thing, hints  that  the  reporter  is  a  good  fellow,  hands 
him  a  cigar  and  lands  him  out  in  the  hall,  bewildered 
and  defeated.  If  there  is  to  be  any  talk  about  the 
weather  or  the  political  situation,  the  reporter  should 
be  the  one  to  bring  it  about.  And  there  is  a  time  and 
a  place  for  this  sort  of  thing.  Getting  a  man  to  say 
something  which,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  he  might 
later  wish  to  have  left  unsaid,  a  reporter's  cue  is  to 
retire  before  the  change  of  mind  comes;  but  it  does 
not  do  for  him  to  make  a  dash  for  the  door  or  take  to 
his  heels,  for  this  course  would  only  bring  the  object  of 
his  questions  to  earth  in  a  hurry  and  not  unlikely  lead 
him  to  retract  his  words  or  declare  that  he  does  not 
wish  to  be  quoted.  Instead,  having  accomplished  the 
purpose  of  his  errand,  the  reporter  should  change  the 
subject,  play  the  admirer  himself,  and  make  his  exit 
gracefully,  leaving  the  other  man  to  wake  up 
when  he  sees  what  he  has  said  staring  at  him  in 
print. 

There  is  nothing  that  acts  more  quickly  and  effect- 
ively as  a  suppressor  of  news  than  a  notebook  and 
pencil  wrongly  displayed,  and  knowing  this,  time-tried 
reporters  cultivate  their  memories;  they  take  notes 
without  restraint  only  when  they  are  after  news  which 


How  the  Reporters  Work  183 

is  on  plain  view  and  which  no  one  can  forbid  them  to 
gather.  A  reporter  does  not  have  to  be  in  the  news- 
paper business  very  long  before  he  has  the  bad  effects 
of  note-taking  impressed  upon  him.  Intent  on  getting 
a  piece  of  news  he  meets  someone  who  can  give  him 
what  he  desires,  and  is  getting  along  swimmingly 
when,  wishing  to  jot  down  a  fact,  he  pulls  out  paper 
and  pencil.  Instantly  there  comes  a  change.  His  in- 
formant, realizing  what  he  had  overlooked,  that  he  is 
not  delivering  a  confidential  talk,  freezes  up,  refuses 
to  say  anything  more,  and  probably  begs  off  for  what 
he  has  already  said.  Politicians  interested  in  factional 
fights  are  particularly  prone  to  do  this,  and  political 
reporters  aware  of  the  fact  never  take  notes  if  they 
can  help  it  while  getting  interviews.  Good  inter- 
viewers train  their  memories  so  that  they  can,  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  note,  wTite  out  a  ten  minutes'  talk  al- 
most word  for  word  hours  after  they  have  heard  it; 
and  in  an  emergency  they  can  carry  a  half-dozen  brief 
interviews  in  their  heads  at  one  time,  and  later  put 
them  on  paper  without  getting  them  mixed  or  losing 
their  salient  points. 

Occasionally,  but  as  a  resort  and  not  as  a  time  and 
labor  saver,  reporters  can  use  the  telephone  to  good 
advantage;  just  how  can  be  illustrated  as  well  by  the 
following  story  as  by  an  indefinite  explanation.  A 
young  reporter,  and  it  happened  that  it  was  one  of  his 
early  assignments,  detailed  because  men  were  scarce  to 
the  reported  failure  of  one  of  the  largest  retail  stores 
in  the  United  States,  found,  reaching  the  store,  that  the 
doors  were  locked  and  that  no  response  was  made  to 
repeated  knockings.  One  of  the  reporters,  of  whom 
probably  a  dozen  were  present,  had  learned  that  the 
head  of  the  firm  was  inside,  and  all  of  the  newsgather- 


184  Making  a  Newspaper 

ers  joined  in  saying  that  a  talk  with  this  individual 
was  the  thing  most  in  demand.  The  young  reporter, 
to  whom  no  attention  was  paid,  was  wondering  where 
his  hoped  for  honors  were  to  be  w^on  in  the  face  of  the 
existing  circumstances,  when,  happening,  to  glance 
through  a  drug  store  window,  his  eyes  fell  on  a  tele- 
phone booth.  In  a  minute  he  was  inside  the  booth, 
calling  the  store  to  which  access  was  so  much  desired. 
The  response  was  quick  "I  would  like  to  speak  to  the 
proprietor,  Mr.  Blank,"  said  the  young  man,  almost 
overcome  by  the  thought  of  his  audacity.  There  was 
a  moment's  silence  and  then  a  voice  said :  ''This  is 
Mr.  Blank,  what  is  it  ?"  Trying  hard  to  keep  cool,  the 
reporter  told  who  he  was  and  said  that  he  wanted  to 
ask  whether  the  firm  had  failed.  Had  he  planned  for 
a  week  he  could  not  have  framed  his  question  better. 
The  word  ''failed"  was  a  slap  in  the  face  for  Mr.  Blank, 
"No,  sir,"  he  shouted,  "it  is  not  a  failure,  only  a  tem- 
porary affair,"  and  he  followed  this  with  an  announce- 
ment that  the  firm  could  pay  its  debts  and  would  pay 
them.  Then  he  denounced  several  persons  who  he 
said  were  trying  to  ruin  him  and  started  to  give  figures. 
At  this  point  there  was  a  bang  at  the  store  end  of  the 
wire  and  the  connection  was  broken.  To  the  reporter 
it  sounded  as  if  someone  had  taken  the  telephone  re- 
ceiver from  Mr.  Blank's  hand  and  thus  silenced  him; 
at  any  rate,  the  reporter  could  not  raise  the  store  again. 
But  what  he  had  already  procured  enabled  him  to  send 
a  quarter-column  interview  to  his  paper,  and  some  of 
the  things  in  it  were  so  turned  to  advantage  by  the 
city  editor  that  the  paper  was  able  to  print  a  two- 
column  story,  which  showed  that  Mr.  Blank  had,  by 
neglecting  his  business,  lost  track  of  its  affairs,  and 
that  he  was  a  bankrupt  without  knowing  it.     The 


How  the  Reporters  Work  185 

articles  printed  by  the  other  papers  all  missed  the  mark, 
and  none  embraced  an  interview. 

In  the  face  of  the  foregoing  tale  it  is  only  fitting  that 
a  warning  should  be  given  against  employing  the  tele- 
phone to  save  time.  It  does  not  pay.  The  reporter 
may  get  answers  to  his  questions,  but  hanging  up  the 
receiver,  he  cannot  be  sure  that  had  he  been  face  to  face 
with  his  informant  he  would  not  have  seen  enough  to 
induce  him  to  double  his  list  of  questions  or  to  change 
their  complexion.  No  matter  what  his  errand  a  re- 
porter should  get  as  close  to  the  fountain  head  of  in- 
formation as  possible,  and  this  holds  good  even  when 
the  questions  he  has  to  ask  are  disagreeable  to  the  last 
degree.  No  newsgatherer  is  so  callous  that  he  likes  to 
ask  a  man  whether  he  has  deserted  his  wife;  but,  de- 
tailed to  get  information  of  this  kind,  a  discreet  reporter 
stifles  his  feelings  and,  going  to  the  man,  perhaps 
with  an  apology,  submits  the  question.  In  a  matter  of 
this  kind  it  is  not  safe  to  trust  to  the  man's  friends, 
and  even  lawyers  are  occasionally  misinformed  as  to 
their  client's  doings. 

A  reporter,  to  tell  the  plain  truth,  cannot  afford  to 
be  above  his  work  or  "above  his  job,"  as  the  New  York 
newsgatherers  say.  A  reporter  is  a  reporter,  and  the 
one  who  allows  his  misgivings  to  interfere  wnth  his 
activity  had  better  look  for  more  pleasing  employment, 
for  whether  he  sees  it  or  not,  he  plays  false  with  his 
employer  and  takes  pay  that  he  does  not  earn.  An  in- 
cident in  the  life  of  a  certain  New  York  reporter  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  danger  of  permitting  inclinations 
to  interfere  with  duty.  Sent  to  a  New  Jersey  town 
one  summer  to  look  into  a  supposed  murder  mystery, 
he  found  the  local  police  and  a  few  outside  detectives 
devoting  their  energies  to  an  endeavor  to  establish  the 


1 86  Making  a  Newspaper 

victim's  identity.  The  body,  which  had  been  found  in 
a  deserted  stone  quarry,  was  lying  in  a  temporary 
morgue,  and  after  Hstening  to  the  descriptions  of  some 
of  the  other  newsgatherers,  of  whom  about  a  dozen 
were  engaged  on  the  story,  the  reporter  in  question 
decided  that  he  did  not  care  to  view  it  himself;  and 
he  did  not.  For  two  days  the  newspaper  represent- 
atives had  plenty  to  write;  then  they  settled  down  to 
wait  for  an  identification.  Men  and  women  by  the 
hundred,  many  from  other  places,  called  to  see  the 
body,  that  of  a  well-dressed  young  man,  but  although 
a  half-dozen  supposed  identifications  were  made,  none 
of  them,  when  run  down,  came  to  anything.  On  the 
evening  of  the  fourth  day  the  reporter  with  whom  this 
tale  is  immediately  concerned,  sitting  in  front  of  the 
morgue,  was  astonished  to  see  coming  up  the  street 
two  New  York  merchants  with  whom  he  was  ac- 
quainted. Accosting  them,  he  found  them  in  low 
spirits,  and  when  they  started  inside  he  decided  to  go 
along.  The  sheet  that  covered  the  body  was  thrown 
back.  *'It's  he,"  whispered  one  of  the  newcomers. 
*Tt's  my  brother."  The  reporter  said  nothing,  but  he 
did  some  rapid  thinking,  for  in  the  dead  man  he 
recognized  a  person  he  well  knew,  at  least,  by  sight, 
and  he  had  good  reason  to  know  him  well,  for  the  man 
had  in  New  York  lived  next-door  to  his  boarding- 
house.  After  the  identification  was  established  the 
reporters  learned  that  they  had  been  at  work  on  a 
suicide  instead  of  a  murder  story,  but  the  sensitive  re- 
porter had  not,  two  years  later,  decided  just  how  he 
ought  to  label  the  incident  in  his  personal  recollections. 
Here  is  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  speak  about  the 
necessity  of  dealing  circumspectly  with  identifications 
of  persons,  either  living  or  dead.     Almost  every  week 


How  the  Reporters  Work  187 

in  the  station  houses  in  New  York  persons  before 
whom  a  Hne  of  men  is  paraded  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  them  a  chance  to  pick  out  the  one  who  has 
robbed  them,  settle  upon  a  detective  or  a  corner  loafer 
called  in  to  add  to  the  line's  length,  instead  of  the 
supposed  thief,  and  it  is  a  common  occurrence  in  the 
courts  for  men  identified  as  the  perpetrators  of  crimes 
to  prove  conclusively  that  they  are  innocent,  and  that 
when  the  crimes  were  committed  they  were  miles  away. 
Identifications  of  the  dead  are  even  more  perplexing 
and  uncertain.  Hardly  a  day  passes  in  New  York  that 
both  men  and  women  are  not  reported  to  Police  Head- 
quarters as  missing  from  home,  and  while  the  majority 
of  them  no  doubt  reappear  after  brief  intervals  there 
are  constantly  many  families  which  are  alarmed  for 
the  safety  of  persons  dear  to  them.  As  a  result  of 
this,  every  time  the  newspapers  report  the  presence  at 
the  Morgue  of  a  well-dressed  body,  the  place  is  be- 
sieged. And  terror-stricken,  half-hysterical,  and  per- 
haps remorseful,  a  good  many  of  the  visitors  see  what 
they  fear  to  see  instead  of  what  confronts  them,  with 
the  consequence  that  the  police  are  sent  on  wild-goose 
chases  that  end  when  they  discover  the  supposed  dead 
men  or  women  alive  and  well,  but  furious  over  the 
newspaper  notoriety  that  has  been  thrust  upon  them. 
The  morbid  and  curious  are  almost  as  bad  as  those  who 
have  friends  missing  in  announcing  identifications,  and 
they  are  more  of  a  menace  to  contentment,  for  from 
them  no  one  is  safe.  Without  a  shadow  of  cause  and 
without  a  thought  about  what  may  result,  they  will 
blurt  out  names,  even  of  persons  with  whom  they  have 
no  acquaintance  and  whom  they  have  never  seen  except 
at  a  distance.  Some  individuals  attempt  so  much  of  this 
thing  that  the  police  get  to  know  them  and  shoo  them 


1 88  Making  a  Newspaper 

away  from  the  Morgue  whenever  they  appear.  So  often 
were  the  reporters  misled  by  one  of  these  irresponsibles 
in  New  York  several  years  ago  that,  on  the  occasion  of 
his  last  appearances,  they  referred  to  him  in  print  as  the 
"Great  American  Identifier."  A  reporter  should  look 
askance  on  all  identifications  unless  the  proof  is  indis- 
putable, and  he  should  not  forget  that  numbers  or  the 
majority  do  not  insure  correctness.  If  a  penny  is 
tossed  before  a  crowd  of  one  hundred  men  and  ninety- 
nine  cry  "heads,"  the  hundredth  man  who  cries  "tails" 
has  exactly  as  much  chance  as  do  all  the  others  put 
together. 


CHAPTER  XII 
WRITING  A  NEWSPAPER  STORY 

To  the  satisfaction  of  experienced  men  who  like  to 
work  free-handed,  and  the  sorrow  of  beginners  who 
are  on  the  lookout  for  guides,  there  is  no  detailed 
formula  for  the  construction  of  a  newspaper  story.  If 
individual  office  requirements  are  excepted,  there  are 
only  two  rules  that  can  be  employed,  and  even  these 
two  fail  of  application  in  a  great  many  instances. 
This  leads  to  the  explanation  that  the  articles  printed 
in  the  newspapers — the  editorials  excepted — can  be 
divided  into  two  classes.  First,  there  are  stories  that 
deal  w^ith  pure  news,  accounts  of  fires,  accidents,  busi- 
ness failures,  elections,  and  a  thousand  and  one  other 
phases  of  life.  These  must  be  printed;  the  public 
demands  them,  and  it  is  to  supply  the  demand  that 
newspapers  exist.  The  second  class  is  made  up  of 
w'hat  are  generally  called  human-interest  stories,  stories 
that  are  printed  not  so  much  to  convey  information  as 
to  furnish  amusement,  arouse  sympathy,  or  merely  to 
entertain. 

The  difference  between  the  two  varieties  of  stories  is 
easily  illustrated,  and  at  the  same  time  it  can  be  shown 
that  both  may  be  built  on  the  same  basis,  and  that  the 
class  in  which  a  story  falls  depends  generally  upon  the 
intention  of  its  writer.  Let  it  be  supposed  that  Solomon 
Simon,  an  emigrant,  poverty-stricken,  in  poor  health, 
out  of  work,  homeless,  friendless,  and  homesick  for 

189 


I  go  Making  a  Newspaper 

his  native  land,  gives  up  the  struggle  for  existence 
and  kills  himself.  His  death  is  of  little  insistent  news 
value  and  may  be  dismissed  with  a  paragraph ;  dozens 
of  suicides  of  this  general  character  get  brief  mention 
in  the  papers  every  month.  If  space  were  in  demand 
this  particular  one  would  be  recorded  something  like 
this :  "Solomon  Simon,  a  despondent  tailor,  killed  him- 
self yesterday  at  666  Allen  Street  by  inhaling  illuminat- 
ing gas."  This  a  brief  news  story.  But  it  is  possible 
to  treat  Solomon  Simon's  death  in  another  manner. 
If  an  energetic  space-paid  reporter,  detailed  to  look  into 
the  suicide,  chanced  to  come  across  someone  who  was 
familiar  with  Simon's  life  history,  and  returned  to  his 
office  to  find  that  there  was  need  of  material  to  fill 
empty  columns,  he  would  probably  write  a  story  that 
told  of  Solomon  Simon's  boyhood,  his  ambitions,  his 
love  affairs,  his  desertion  of  home  for  the  land  of 
promise,  the  blasting  of  his  hopes,  the  struggle  for 
existence,  the  growing  hardships,  and  the  end  of  his 
career  with  promise  of  a  resting  place  in  the  Potter's 
Field.    This  would  be  a  human-interest  story. 

For  the  construction  of  a  human-interest  story  there 
is  no  only  way  any  more  than  there  is  an  only  way  for 
the  construction  of  a  magazine  article  or  a  novel.  No 
matter  how  it  proceeds  it  gets  editorial  sanction  if  it 
is  good  reading.  But  a  human-interest  story  that 
fails  is  a  sad  affair.  Making  pretensions  it  dare  not 
be  mediocre ;  and  it  is  a  particularly  sad  affair  if,  while 
too  poorly  written  to  print,  it  has  in  it  news  that  must 
go  into  the  paper,  for  a  story  of  this  type  defies 
ordinary  copy  reading  methods  and  yields  only  to 
the  rewriters.  Editors  are  continually  looking  for 
original  writers,  men  who  can  produce  something  new, 
but  they  are  looking  for  the  finished  product  and  not 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  191 

for  experimenters,  and  because  of  this  beginners  should 
do  their  very  best  when  they  try  human-interest  stories. 
Most  of  the  good  stories  of  this  type  that  appear  in  the 
papers  are  the  work  of  the  star  reporters. 

It  is  with  pure  news  stories  that  the  two  rules  already 
referred  to  have  to  do.  The  first  rule  is :  "Always 
begin  your  story  with  the  most  important  fact";  the 
second  is,  "Take  up  the  various  incidents  in  the  order 
of  their  importance,  reserving  unessentials  for  the 
last."  The  first  rule  calls  for  an  explanation,  for  it 
has  an  implied  meaning  that  might  be  overlooked.  Be- 
fore a  reporter  can  determine  accurately  which  part 
of  a  story  is  the  most  important  he  must,  of  course, 
procure  every  detail ;  missing  only  one  he  cannot  make 
a  sure  selection,  for  the  one  that  is  missed  may  be  the 
one  that  outranks  all  the  others.  What  the  rule  really 
says,  then,  is  that  a  reporter  should  first  get  every  fact 
and  then  begin  his  story  with  the  most  important  one. 
Both  the  rules  are  in  force  in  every  newspaper  office 
in  the  land,  and  it  is  highly  important  that  the  beginner 
keep  them  before  him.  But  it  is  not  enough  that  he 
get  the  rules  themselves.  Their  application  is  the 
part  that  counts,  and  to  apply  them  is  not  so  easy  as 
might  appear;  even  the  star  reporters  in  the  best 
offices  go  far  astray  occasionally.  When  John  Smith 
falls  and  breaks  his  leg,  and  the  accident  has  to  be 
recorded,  there  is,  if  there  are  no  incidents  worth  men- 
tioning connected  with  the  occurrence,  not  much 
chance  for  originality,  and  the  reporter  may  be  par- 
doned for  starting  his  story  "John  Smith,  34  years 
old,  of  1 66 1  Third  Avenue."  But  when  a  whole  staff 
of  reporters  sticks  as  closely  to  evident  facts,  and  the 
public  is  compelled  to  look  upon  a  series  of  articles 
beginning,  "Mary  Jones,  32,  of  67  Lenox  Street,  was 


192  Making  a  Newspaper 

arraigned  in  the  Jefferson  Market  Police  Court  to- 
day," and  "Policeman  Brown  of  the  Mulberry  Street 
station  was  patrolling  his  beat  this  morning,"  it  is 
evident  that  a  good  rule  is  being  made  ridiculous.  The 
trouble  is  that  it  is  extremely  easy  to  mistake  the 
primary  or  most  obvious  fact  for  the  most  important 
one,  and  vvhen  this  mistake  is  made  a  machine  con- 
struction introduction  is  the  invariable  result. 

The  Introduction  of  a  newspaper  story  is  the  part 
that  counts  heaviest,  for  this  is  the  bait  that  attracts 
or  scares  off  readers.  Every  experienced  reporter 
realizes,  too,  that  the  quality  of  the  Introductions  he 
writes  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  standing  he 
acquires  in  his  superiors'  estimation.  A  good  Intro- 
duction will  sometimes  act  as  a  passport  for  a  story 
that  is  not  high  class  all  through,  but  a  story  that  is 
good  as  a  whole  stands  little  chance  of  getting  into 
print  without  many  alterations  if  It  Is  headed  by  a 
weak  beginning.  Rarely  does  the  city  editor  read 
a  story  from  end  to  end  before  it  gets  into  print; 
ordinarily,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  his  judgment  is 
formed  on  the  quality  of  the  introduction  alone.  With 
the  copy  readers  it  is  much  the  same.  Finding  that  a 
story  makes  a  good  start  they  go  through  it  favor- 
ably disposed.  But  compelled  to  worry  over  the  open- 
ing, they  apparently  get  into  the  habit  of  making  cor- 
rections and  slash  right  and  left.  Aware  of  all  this  a 
time-tried  reporter  will  often  make  a  half-dozen  starts 
before  he  gets  an  opening  sentence  that  suits  him. 

Properly  constructed,  a  pure  news  story  begins  with 
the  climax,  the  story's  most  dramatic  or  noteworthy 
incident,  and  works  backward.  The  opening  sentence 
tells  the  main  facts  and  the  complete  introduction  con- 
tains a  summary  or  forecast  of  what  Is  to  follow. 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  193 

Thus,  in  writing  about  a  small  fire  in  which  lives  were 
lost,  a  reporter  does  not  tell  of  the  starting  of  the  fire, 
and  lead  up  to  the  loss  of  life.  Instead,  he  makes  the 
fire  a  secondary  matter  and  opens  his  story  with  the 
announcement :  ''Two  men  lost  their  lives  in  a  fire  in 
Broome  Street  last  night."  The  persons  who  wish  to 
learn  about  the  fire  itself  must  read  further.  An  in- 
troduction should  always  be  brief,  and  the  first  sentence 
should  be  a  short  one.  Experienced  reporters  never 
begin  to  write  w-ithout  having  a  pretty  fair  idea  of  the 
manner  in  which  their  stories  are  to  proceed.  All 
the  time  they  are  collecting  information  they  subcon- 
sciously arrange  their  finds  in  some  sort  of  order,  and 
on  their  w^ay  to  their  offices  at  the  close  of  a  search  for 
news  they  plan  in  more  or  less  detail  the  form  in  which 
their  information  shall  go  on  paper.  Free  to  choose, 
an  ambitious  reporter,  returning  to  his  office  to  wTite, 
will  keep  to  himself  every  time  and  his  mind  will  be 
active  every  foot  of  the  way. 

The  body  of  a  new^s  story,  if  the  second  rule  for 
newspaper  writing,  the  one  which  says  that  the  facts 
must  be  marshaled  in  the  order  of  their  importance,  is 
observed,  is  itself  an  introduction  draw^n  out.  First, 
it  explains  the  climax,  and  this  over,  passes  on  to  take 
up  the  various  incidents  as  they  are  demanded  to  make 
the  story  proceed  intelligently.  The  unessentials  come 
last.  A  story  constructed  on  this  plan  has  two  strong 
points.  It  can  be  cut  off  almost  anywhere  if  space  is 
at  a  premium;  and  appearing  in  the  paper,  it  does  not 
hold  the  reader  in  suspense  and  demand  a  complete 
reading.  The  story  that  does  not  explain  as  it  goes 
gets  harsh  treatment  in  a  large  newspaper  office,  and 
usually  brings  a  reprimand  for  the  writer.  Remember- 
ing the  two  rules  for  writing,  a  young  reporter  need 


194  Making  a  Newspaper 

only  turn  to  a  high-ciass  city  newspaper  to  see  how 
they  are  appHed.  To  give  examples  of  well-written 
stories  here  there  is  no  need.  The  examples,  were  they 
presented,  might  easily  be  pronounced  bad  ones  by 
someone  to  whom  they  did  not  appeal,  and  they  would 
in  addition  be  nothing  more  than  personal  selections. 
The  stories  that  appear  in  the  papers  may  be  accepted 
as  good  examples  or  at  least  as  examples  that  have 
passed  the  scrutiny  of  a  city  editor,  a  copy  reader,  and 
a  managing  editor,  or  a  managing  editor's  assistant. 
Of  rules  for  writing  that  are  in  force  in  individual 
offices  there  is  no  end.  Every  time  a  reporter  changes 
from  one  paper  to  another  he  encounters  a  lot  of  new 
ones,  and  he  is  not  astonished  if  in  one  place  he  is  told 
to  do  something  that  in  another  was  strictly  for- 
bidden. In  one  office  a  steamship  is  always  a  steam- 
ship, a  boat,  or  a  vessel;  it  must  never  be  called  a 
ship,  the  contention  being  that  a  ship  is  never  anything 
else  than  a  square-rigged  vessel  carrying  sails.  In 
another  office  a  ship  must  never  be  called  a  vessel,  the 
editors  saying  that  a  vessel  is  a  utensil  for  holding 
liquors.  There  are  dozens  of  these  contradictions. 
But  the  discreet  reporter  learns  the  rules  of  his  office 
and  observes  them  carefully,  no  matter  what  he  thinks 
of  them.  Usually  these  rules  are  w^arnings,  consist- 
ing of  a  series  of  *'don'ts,"  and  in  many  establish- 
ments the  official  "don't"  list  is  regarded  in  the  light 
of  a  text-book,  the  supposition  apparently  being  that, 
avoiding  the  wrong  things,  a  reporter  will  hit  upon 
the  right  ones.  In  reality,  the  "don'ts"  are  always 
of  a  negative  value.  It  does  not  help  a  green  reporter 
in  the  slightest  to  tell  him  not  to  use  "commence"  for 
"begin,"  or  "couple"  for  "two,"  and  the  man  who 
studies  a  "don't"  list  in  the  hope  of  learning  how  to 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  195 

write  needs  sympathy.  The  "do"  Hst  when  it  exists 
at  all  usually  consists  of  a  half-dozen  rules  like  "Use 
'on'  before  name  of  day,"  and  "Do  observe  sequence 
of  tenses."  There  is,  however,  a  lot  of  advice  that 
might  be  given  to  beginners  and  some  of  it  is  here 
presented. 

A  newspaper  story  must  be  clear.  Its  main  pur- 
pose is  to  convey  information,  and  when  it  does  not 
do  this  there  is  no  reason  for  its  existence.  A  re- 
porter's first  aim  should  be,  therefore,  to  construct  his 
story  so  that  he  cannot  be  misunderstood.  If  he  can 
combine  literary  style  with  clearness,  well  and  good ; 
if  he  cannot,  literary  style  must  be  relegated  to  the 
background.  It  is  always  better  to  repeat  a  name  than 
to  use  a  pronoun  where  there  is  a  possibility  of  am- 
biguity, and  it  is  just  as  well  to  avoid  the  words 
"former"  and  "latter."  Short  words  are  always  to  be 
preferred  to  long  ones,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  des- 
ignate a  thing  in  a  dozen  different  ways  simply  to 
avoid  repeating  a  word ;  calling  a  modern  fifteen-story 
hotel  an  inn,  a  tavern,  and  a  caravansary  verges  close 
on  the  ridiculous.  Short  sentences,  too,  are  preferable 
in  newspaper  writing;  long,  involved  ones  are  not  de- 
sired in  any  office,  and  on  some  papers  there  is  a  rule 
that  no  sentence  shall  be  printed  which  occupies  more 
than  seven  lines  of  type.  Incidentally,  if  a  reporter  is 
called  upon  to  correct  a  proof  he  should  endeavor, 
changing  a  word  or  a  sentence,  to  write  in  about  as 
much  as  he  takes  out,  thus  rendering  it  possible  for  the 
printer  to  make  the  change  without  running  over  or 
respacing  many  lines  to  "make  even."  Should  the 
word  "penitentiary,"  for  example,  be  supplanted  by 
"jail,"  the  printer  has  to  reset  four  or  five  lines  at 
least  before  he  can  cover  up  the  change.     Where  a 


196  Making  a  Newspaper 

long  word  has  to  be  taken  out  and  none  is  to  go  in 
its  place,  the  best  plan  is  to  cut  out  enough  other  words 
to  permit  the  removal  of  an  entire  line. 

Next  to  clearness  the  quality  which  an  editor  most 
likes  to  see  displayed  in  a  newspaper  story  is  sprightli- 
ness,  or  at  least  readableness.  There  are  some  stories 
printed  in  the  papers,  such  as  legal  proceedings,  that 
are  necessarily  formal  and  dry,  but  were  it  possible 
the  wide-awake  editor  would  have  none  of  this.  Could 
he  do  it  he  would  make  accounts  of  funerals  even 
pleasant  and  attractive  reading.  The  stories  which  he 
admires  are  those  which,  alive  and  full  of  vigor,  move 
with  a  good  swing.  Even  a  sad  story  must  have  life 
in  it  to  meet  his  approbation.  The  sadness  must 
be  set  forth  realistically  and  strongly,  without  a  sus- 
picion of  bathos,  and  there  dare  be  no  halting,  no 
signs  of  weakness.  For  dullness  an  editor  will  take 
no  excuse.  Be  it  displayed  either  in  a  man  or  in  a  story 
he  puts  upon  it  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  the 
mark  of  his  disapproval. 

A  reporter  who  wishes  to  succeed  aims  to  give  all 
his  stories  a  touch  of  originality.  A  star  newsgatherer 
chancing  to  be  sent  to  a  small  tenement-house  fire  will 
search  the  house  from  top  to  bottom,  or  if  need  be,  the 
entire  neighborhood,  to  find  an  incident  odd,  amusing, 
or  sorrowful,  and  not  infrequently  will  write  a  long 
story  that,  while  based  on  the  fire,  is  supported  by  a 
pedestal  of  such  extreme  slenderness  that  it  is  hardly 
perceptible.  He  may  for  the  main  feature  of  a  fire 
story  take  the  destruction  of  a  family  heirloom,  the 
rescue  of  a  pet  dog,  the  marvelous  escape  from  suffoca- 
tion of  a  canary  bird,  an  accident  to  a  fireman,  the 
enormous  crowd  attracted  by  the  fire,  the  unusually 
large  number  of  engines  summoned,  or  the  presence  in 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  197 

the  crowd  of  notable  persons.  A  reporter,  however, 
must  handle  local  color  with  discretion.  The  man  who 
fails  to  keep  it  within  reason  runs  a  risk  of  getting  a 
talk  of  the  kind  given  a  New  York  reporter  who,  sent 
to  look  after  a  $200,000  grain  elevator  fire,  delivered 
to  his  city  editor  a  column  story  of  which  over  two- 
thirds  was  devoted  to  a  description  of  the  uses  of  a 
grain  elevator  and  the  methods  employed  in  its  opera- 
tion; or  worse  still,  find  himself  in  the  predicament  of 
the  man  who,  while  congratulating  himself  on  the  ex- 
cellence of  his  column  story  telling  of  the  rescue  of  a 
parrot  from  a  burning  tenement,  was  hastily  sum- 
moned to  the  managing  editor's  office  and  there  con- 
fronted with  an  issue  of  a  rival  paper  which,  under 
a  large  heading,  made  it  known  that  the  fire  had 
burned  two  women  to  death. 

Because  vigor  is  so  highly  esteemed  by  editors  it 
often  happens  that  a  novice  at  the  start  gets  a  higher 
ranking  than  he  deserves.  His  initial  efforts  arouse 
high  hopes  that  practice  will  enable  him  to  do  wonder- 
ful things ;  but  at  the  end  of  six  months  it  is  found  that 
the  experience  gained  is  more  than  offset  by  the  fresh- 
ness lost.  Another  individual  who  is  well  known  in 
the  big  newspaper  offices  is  the  ''one-story  man." 
This  reporter  brings  with  him  one  good  story  or  one 
original  idea.  Presenting  it  to  view  he  comes  in  for 
praise.  But  never  is  his  success  repeated.  So  com- 
mon is  this  performance  that  many  editors  contend 
that  every  man  who  walks  has  one  good  story  in  him. 

The  idea  promoted  by  school-teachers,  among  whom 
it  is  apparently  a  tradition,  and  fostered  by  the  "Rules 
for  Writing  for  the  Press,"  that  appear  among  the  back 
pages  of  some  text-books,  that  everything  written  for  a 
newspaper  must  be  boiled  down  to  the  last  degree  is  all 


198  Making  a  Newspaper 

nonsense.  An  editor  does  not  allow  a  reporter  to  take 
up  space  by  saying  the  same  thing  in  different  ways, 
but  he  rarely  requires  him  to  express  a  good  story  in 
the  briefest  form  possible.  If  condensation  were  a 
high  virtue  two-page  newspapers  would  be  common, 
for  there  are  not  many  stories  which  could  not  be 
crowded  into  a  few  paragraphs.  Instead  of  demand- 
ing compression  an  editor  merely  asks  that  each  sen- 
tence say  something;  that  the  story  grow  as  its  length 
increases.  The  ability  to  fill  space  is  esteemed  fully 
as  highly  as  the  ability  to  condense,  and  a  first-class 
man  is  expected  to  be  able  to  do  either  equally  well. 
Not  allowed  to  say  the  same  thing  in  different  ways,  a 
reporter  told  to  expand  a  story  has  only  one  resource, 
to  keep  on  adding  on  details ;  and  that  he  is  able  to  add 
the  details,  although  some  of  them  may  be  far  from 
essential,  proves  that  he  is  a  good  newsgatherer.  An 
experienced  reporter  can  determine  when  a  story  is 
not  worth  much  as  well  as  can  an  editor,  but  when  he 
encounters  a  story  which  can  be  condensed  or  ex- 
panded as  suits  the  editor's  fancy  or  the  demand  for 
material,  he  pursues  the  news  as  if  he  knew  that  a  long 
story  would  be  in  order.  Then  returning  to  his  office, 
he  is  prepared  to  give  satisfaction  in  either  direction. 
A  lesson  along  this  line  was  administered  to  a  young 
reporter  in  New  York  a  few  years  ago  when  he  told 
his  city  editor  that  he  had  learned  that  two  cases  of 
smallpox,  the  first  discovered  in  the  city  for  several 
years,  had  been  reported  to  the  Board  of  Health. 
"Write  a  half  column  about  it,"  said  the  city  editor. 
The  young  reporter  reluctantly  announced  that  he  could 
not  fill  the  space,  whereupon  another  man  was  assigned 
to  the  story.  When  the  second  man  returned  to  the 
office  the  printers  were  crying  for  copy  and  the  city 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  199 

editor  doubled'  his  former  demands.  "Write  a 
column,"  he  said,  ''the  story  is  worth  it."  As  if  he 
had  been  expecting  this  order  all  along  the  experi- 
enced man  got  to  work  and  produced  a  story  of  the 
required  length  that  was  good  reading  to  the  end.  He 
told  how  the  new  cases  happened  to  be  discovered,  told 
all  that  was  known  of  their  history,  gave  interviews 
with  the  health  board  officers  on  the  likelihood  of  an 
epidemic,  dealt  with  the  danger  of  contagion  and  the 
efficacy  of  vaccination,  and  ended  with  a  reference 
to  the  last  cases  previously  found  in  the  city  and  a  his- 
tory of  smallpox  epidemics. 

Technical  words  should  be  avoided,  as  they  may  con- 
fuse the  ordinary  reader.  That  this  is  true  is  often 
proved  when  an  editor,  after  the  announcement  of 
some  wonderful  discovery  in  the  realms  of  science, 
employs  an  expert  to  prepare  an  article  on  the  subject. 
The  expert,  understanding  the  matter  in  all  its  details 
and  perfectly  familiar  with  previous  accomplishments 
in  the  same  line,  cannot  conceive  that  the  whole  matter 
is  a  closed  book  to  most  persons  and  submits  an  article 
that  entirely  fails  of  its  purpose.  Highly  entertaining 
and  instructive  to  a  small  number  it  is  absolutely  un- 
intelligible to  the  great  majority.  This  was  well  illus- 
trated when  the  discovery  of  the  Roentgen  rays  was 
made  known.  Few  of  the  articles  published  succeeded 
in  telling  more  than  w^hat  could  be  accomplished  by  the 
use  of  the  rays;  and  most  of  those  which  were  read- 
able were  written  not  by  scientists  but  by  reporters 
whose  mental  alertness  enabled  them  to  comprehend 
involved  explanations  and  set  them  forth  in  every- 
day words. 

On  an  evening  paper  the  past  tense  should  be  em- 
ployed wherever  possible,  thus  doing  away  with  the 


200  Making  a  Newspaper 

necessity  of  rewriting  and  changing  late  in  the  day. 
A  beginner  is  often  placed  at  a  disadvantage  when  he 
is  told  to  write  in  the  past  tense  about  something  that 
is  still  in  the  future,  but  the  experienced  men  are 
usually  clever  enough  to  overcome  the  difficulty.  Not 
once  in  a  week  does  an  old-time  evening  paper  reporter 
write  a  story  that  has  to  be  changed  in  the  late  editions. 
Instead  of  beginning  a  story,  "The  detectives  who  are 
looking  for  the  murderer  of  John  Smith  hope  to  catch 
him  before  night,"  thus  calling  for  a  change  of  tense 
all  through  in  case  the  murderer  is  caught,  he  writes : 
"The  detectives  engaged  in  searching  for  the  murderer 
of  John  Smith  announced  this  morning  that  they  hoped 
to  catch  him  before  the  day  was  over."  Then  if  the 
murderer  is  captured  the  reporter  embodies  the  in- 
formation in  a  paragraph,  and  the  old  story  is  printed 
with  the  paragraph  serving  as  an  introduction.  Ex- 
amples of  this  sort  of  thing  are  to  be  found  in  the 
evening  papers  every  day.  In  the  summer  the  re- 
porter writes :  "New  York  awoke  this  morning  feel- 
ing that  it  was  in  for  another  scorching  day,"  and 
in  the  winter  he  writes :  "The  local  forecaster  an- 
nounced this  morning  after  he  had  received  his  reports 
and  consulted  hi^  instruments  that  the  city  was  in  for 
a  snowstorm."  In  either  case  the  story  can  run  as 
it  is,  no  matter  what  happens,  and  can  be  brought  up 
to  the  minute  by  the  addition  of  a  new  introduction 
at  any  time. 

The  subject  of  new  introductions  calls  for  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  "lead,"  "insert,"  and  "add,"  all  of  which 
are  continually  employed  in  newspaper  offices.  The 
lead  has  really  already  been  explained,  for  a  lead  is  a 
new  introduction ;  but  a  few  words  more  will  be  given 
it.     It  would  never  do  for  a  paper  printing  a  column- 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  201 

long  account  of  a  court  trial  to  reserve  the  verdict  of 
the  jury,  the  climax  of  the  whole  story,  for  the  clos- 
ing sentence;  yet  an  evening  paper  printing  a  running 
account  of  the  proceedings  probably  has  a  column 
story  in  its  pages  before  the  verdict  is  rendered.  Where 
this  is  the  case  the  reporter  who  is  attending  the  trial, 
when  the  verdict  is  announced,  writes  a  new  introduc- 
tion and  sends  it  to  his  office  marked,  "Lead,  murder 
trial."  A  qopy  reader  sees  that  in  the  next  edition  of 
the  paper  the  story  starts  with  the  new  introduction. 
On  a  progressive  afternoon  paper  almost  every  long 
running  story  is  provided  with  a  new  lead  for  every 
edition. 

The  ''insert"  is  a  paragraph  that  goes  into  the  body 
of  a  story,  usually  to  explain  in  detail.  Thus  a  re- 
porter writing  about  a  fire  may  say  that  several  per- 
sons were  rescued  by  the  firemen.  Later,  when  he 
ascertains  the  names  of  the  persons  rescued,  he  writes 
this  information  and  turns  it  over  to  the  copy  reader 
who  read  the  story  marked  'Tnsert  fire,"  whereupon 
the  copy  reader  cuts  out  the  original  indefinite  refer- 
ence to  the  rescues  and  substitutes  the  new  paragraph. 
The  insert  is  particularly  useful  in  adding  to  ''Among 
those  present." 

The  "add"  is  nothing  more  than  an  addition  to  a  story 
and  is  employed  when  the  reporter,  while  having  fresh 
information,  does  not  deem  it  of  sufficient  importance 
to  form  the  basis  of  a  new  lead.  The  lead,  insert,  and 
add  are  all  written  as  if  they  were  complete  stories. 
They  have  to  begin  with  paragraphs,  the  first  page 
is  always  No.  i,  and  at  the  close  the  reporter 
writes  "The  End."  A  part  of  a  story  which  he  ex- 
pects to  supplant  later  with  an  insert  the  reporter 
should   include   in   a  separate   paragraph   so  that   it 


202  Making  a  Newspaper 

may  be  ''lifted"   without  disturbing  the  rest  of  the 
article. 

Any  report  which  grows  as  the  day  advances  is 
called  a  "running  story,"  and  nothing  pleases  a  space- 
paid  reporter  better  than  to  be  sent  to  a  court  trial  to 
write  a  story  of  this  kind.  The  news  is  unfolded  as  if 
for  his  exclusive  benefit,  he  is  in  no  danger  of  defeat 
so  long  as  he  does  not  go  to  sleep,  and  he  is  pretty 
sure  to  get  a  lot  of  "space"  into  the  paper.  The  old- 
style  definite  question  and  answer  court  report  is  very 
rarely  used  now.  Instead  the  papers  usually  present 
accounts  written  in  the  conversational  style.  All  the 
unessential  questions  and  answers  are  omitted,  but  the 
reporter  endeavors  to  tell  not  only  what  occurred  but 
how  it  occurred.     Thus  he  writes : 

"What!"  shouted  the  prosecuting  attorney,  advanc- 
ing and  shaking  his  finger  in  the  witness's  face.  "Do 
you  mean  to  say  that  you  were  in  the  room  at  this 
time  and  did  not  hear  the  shot  fired?" 

"I  certainly  do,"  the  witness  replied,  adding  after 
a  moment's  pause,  "I'm  hard  of  hearing." 

"You  must  be,"  remarked  the  prosecutor,  as  he 
turned  to  consult  his  assistant. 

John  Jones,  the  next  wntness,  declared  that  he  was 
asleep  in  a  corner  at  the  time  of  the  shooting,  and  made 
way  for  Policeman  Richard  Brown,  who  took  the  de- 
fendant into  custody.  Brown  told  how  he  had  been 
called  into  the  saloon. 

"What  time  was  this?"  interrupted  the  prosecuting 
attorney. 

"Five  minutes  after  midnight,"  was  the  reply. 

The  easiest  form  of  newspaper  writing  is  the  quota- 
tion, and  the  consequence  is  that  interviewing  is  done 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  203 

to  extremes.  Every  Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry  gets  the 
chance  to  tell  what  he  knows  in  print,  and  usually  he 
takes  a  quarter  of  a  column  to  say  what  might  be  better 
said  in  a  few  lines.  Many  times  a  reporter  writes 
his  story  in  the  form  of  an  interview  because  he  knows 
that  in  this  way  he  can  fill  more  space  than  he  could  in 
any  other.  Then,  accused  of  padding  or  of  writing 
poor  English,  he  takes  refuge  behind  the  excuse  that 
he  was  quoting.  The  pliability  of  the  quotation  and  the 
imaginary  brilliancy  of  some  reporters,  combined,  have 
in  more  than  one  city  added  materially  to  the  difficulty 
of  gathering  neW'S.  Sent  to  get  a  piece  of  news  and 
getting  nothing  more  than  a  cool  reception,  they  write 
long  articles  setting  forth  the  questions  they  asked  and 
follow  each  question  with  the  reply,  "I  have  nothing  to 
say,"  'T  decline  to  answer,"  or  *'I  refuse  to  talk  for 
publication."  This  sort  of  performance  has  its  effect 
in  certain  quarters,  with  the  result  that  a  reporter, 
asking  a  truck-driver  how  he  happened  to  run  over  a 
child,  is  greeted  with:  'T  refuse  to  talk  for  publica- 
tion," or  asking  a  janitor  about  a  robbery,  hears,  'T 
decline  to  discuss  the  matter."  Often,  a  reporter  who 
gets  a  setback  of  this  kind  has  cause  to  wonder  whether 
he  has  not  contributed  to  his  own  discomfiture. 

On  a  morning  paper  every  reporter  has  to  be  able 
to  write  his  own  stories,  but  on  the  more  aggressive 
evening  papers  there  are  now  many  men  employed  who 
devote  themselves  exclusively  to  gathering  news.  All 
the  information  they  pick  up  is  telephoned  to  the  offices 
and  there  put  on  paper  by  corps  of  clever  writers  who 
are  able  to  make  the  most  of  whatever  comes  to  them. 
These  office  writers  know  exactly  what  style  of  writing 
the  editors  want,  which  results  in  stories  uniformly 
satisfactory,  and  being  rapid  typewriter  operators  they 


204  Making  a  Newspaper 

help  to  get  the  news  into  print  in  a  hurry.  For  the 
past  five  years  the  evening  papers  have  been  coming  to 
depend  more  and  more  upon  the  telephone,  until 
now,  in  some  establishments  the  reporters  never  return 
to  the  office  with  their  information ;  they  w^ould  be 
censured  if  they  did,  for  the  editors  hold  that  a  man's 
time  is  always  worth  more  than  the  saving  he  would 
accomplish  by  delivering  his  news  in  person.  Through 
the  use  of  the  telephone,  too,  the  editors  succeed  in 
keeping  their  reporters  busy  every  minute,  for  as  soon 
as  a  man  has  finished  giving  a  story  over  the  wire,  he 
is  detailed  to  a  fresh  assignment.  Some  of  these 
reporters  get  even  their  first  assignments  of  the 
morning  over  the  wire,  being  required  to  call  up  their 
city  editor  as  soon  as  they  have  eaten  their  breakfast, 
and  thus  have  no  reason  to  visit  the  office,  except  once 
a  week  to  get  their  pay.  They  are  expected,  too,  to 
make  these  visits  on  their  own  time.  Of  course,  the 
reporter  who  is  measured  only  by  his  ability  to  gather 
news,  must  give  continual  satisfaction.  A  serious  de- 
feat is  not  necessary  to  land  him  out  of  work;  he  need 
be  only  a  little  slow  in  getting  to  a  telephone. 

The  beginner  on  a  newspaper  is  pretty  sure,  either  in 
his  searches  for  news  or  in  his  contests  with  the  other 
reporters,  to  meet  with  experiences  that  seem  to  him 
to  be  worth  telling  about,  and,  because  of  this,  he  needs 
the  warning  that  most  editors  hold  fast  to  the  belief 
that  the  public  not  only  does  not  care  to  learn  what  the 
reporters  have  done,  but  is  best  pleased  when  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  them.  Unless  a  reporter,  therefore, 
does  something  far  out  of  the  ordinary,  he  had  better 
not  mention  his  performances  in  his  stories;  certainly 
before  spending  much  time  writing  about  himself  he 
should  consult  his  city  editor. 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  205 

More  and  more  are  the  employees  of  daily  papers 
coming  to  be  looked  upon  as  part  of  the  machinery. 
The  personal  pronoun  *'!"  now  has  for  company  in 
oblivion,  so  far  as  most  papers  are  concerned,  the  edi- 
torial "we,"  and  complaint  is  made  whenever  a  man 
who  edits  news  passes  a  story  which  even,  keep- 
ing the  writer's  personality  out  of  sight  to  the  extent 
that  he  is  referred  to  by  no  appellation,  allows  a  con- 
clusion or  an  opinion  to  supplant  facts.  Thus  an 
editor  is  quick  to  pounce  upon  a  reporter  who,  return- 
ing from  a  public  meeting,  writes  that  a  man  is  a 
wonderful  orator,  and  inform  him  that  he  is  to  confine 
himself  to  his  province :  tell  what  the  man  said,  how  he 
said  it,  and  how  his  speech  was  received  by  the  crowd; 
then  allow  the  readers  to  decide  about  the  rating  of  th^ 
man  as  an  orator.  Again,  an  editor  protests  when  a 
reporter  writes  about  a  ''terrible  catastrophe,"  or  ''an 
awful  storm."  These  expressions,  in  addition  to  being 
hackneyed,  are  uncalled  for,  as  a  recital  of  facts  will  per- 
mit the  readers  to  form  their  own  conclusions.  "The 
scene  beggars  description,"  is  forbidden  in  all  large 
offices,  because  it  is  an  expression  of  opinion,  a  stock 
phrase  which  has  outlived  its  usefulness,  and  because  it 
says  in  effect  that  the  writer  acknowledges  that  the 
task  which  he  is  about  to  attempt  is  beyond  his  limita- 
tions. This  particular  phrase  appearing  in  an  intro- 
duction never  fails  to  arouse  a  city  editor's  anger,  and 
occasionally  the  offender  gets  a  chance  to  ruminate 
over  a  remark  something  like:  "Evidently,  I  should 
have  sent  a  reporter  out  on  that  story." 

Humor,  the  beginner  is  likely  to  find,  is  highly 
esteemed  by  his  city  editor,  and  because  of  this  he  needs 
to  be  warned  against  trying  to  be  funny  at  the  expense 
of  the  proprieties.     If  a  man  falls  into  a  bed  of  mortar 


2o6  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  is  pulled  out  unhurt,  the  reporter  can  be  as  keen  as 
he  pleases;  but  if  the  man  is  taken  out  dead  or  badly 
hurt  there  is  certainly  no  occasion  for  mirth.  Not 
often  does  a  reporter  forget  himself  so  far  as  to  at- 
tempt levity  in  a  story  that  has  to  do  with  a  death,  but 
almost  every  beginner  does  have  to  be  called  to  ac- 
count for  offending  in  a  lesser  degree.  Good  taste 
should  always  be  remembered. 

Good  tools  are  necessary  for  good  work,  and  for  a 
reporter,  whether  he  uses  a  typewriter  or  not,  this 
means  good  lead  pencils  and  plenty  of  them.  The 
man  who  tries  to  write  with  a  scratchy  or  smudgy  pen- 
cil wastes  time  every  day  that  is  worth  more  than  a 
box  of  good  pencils,  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
man  who  has  only  one  pencil  and  has  to  stop  to  sharpen 
it  every  five  minutes,  while  he  is  writing.  Pencil  and 
knife  borrowers  are  both  nuisances.  The  beginner 
should  buy  a  dozen  pencils — there  are  two  kinds  that 
are  in  high  favor  with  New  York  reporters — sharpen 
the  whole  lot  with  his  own  knife  and  keep  them  handy. 
At  least  one  pencil  he  should  carry  with  him  always, 
for  a  reporter  without  a  pencil  is  like  a  soldier  without 
a  gun. 

Inability  to  write  a  hand  that  can  be  easily  read  is  a 
serious  drawback.  Poor  writing  can  generally  be 
read  by  the  copy  readers,  but  the  compositors,  getting 
only  small  parts  of  stories  and  thus  being  unable  to 
"make  sense,"  are  always  hampered  by  illegible  words. 
Hair  lines  are  barred  as  the  compositors  have  to  read 
at  a  distance  of  about  two  feet,  and  the  stub  pen  is 
forbidden  because  it  blots. 

A  reporter  should  write  a  uniform  hand,  keep  the 
number  of  words  on  a  page  about  the  same,  and  be 
able  to  estimate  his  copy  in  type  space.     A  city  editor 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  207 

always  provides  copy  paper  of  one  size,  which  makes 
the  estimating  easy.  Incidentally,  when  the  city 
editor  asks  for  a  ''stick"  story,  he  means  one  that 
in  type  will  fill  between  two  and  a  half  and  three 
inches. 

There  is  probably  no  one  who  is  not  aware  that 
copy  must  be  Avritten  on  one  side  of  the  paper  only, 
but  it  is  not  everyone  who  knows  why.  The  reason 
is  that  the  pages  are  pasted  together  in  the  composing 
room  and  cut  into  new  sizes. 

Use  plenty  of  paper,  is  the  best  of  advice.  Leave 
a  margin  of  two  inches  at  the  top  of  each  page  to 
facilitate  the  joining  of  the  pages  in  the  composing 
room;  leave  an  inch  margin  at  the  left  of  each  page; 
and  give  the  copy  reader  a  chance  by  leaving  space 
for  interlineations.  Do  not  try  to  crowd  words,  par- 
ticularly at  the  bottom  of  a  page.  Take  a  new  sheet 
of  paper  rather  than  crowd,  but  a  sheet  that  bears  only 
a  few  words  should  be  attached  to  the  preceding  one. 
Never  run  a  word  or  a  name  from  one  page  to  an- 
other. In  starting  a  story  leave  a  space  of  four  or 
five  inches  at  the  top  of  the  page  for  the  writing  of  the 
heading. 

Always  number  your  pages,  beginning  with  i. 
Place  the  figures  in  the  middle  at  the  top,  and  write 
them  plainly;  make  them  prominent.  If  your  story 
goes  to  the  copy  reader  a  page  at  a  time,  add  a  catch 
line  to  the  number,  thus:  "i  Storm,"  "2  Storm."  A 
copy  reader,  when  he  has  three  or  four  stories  coming 
to  him  piecemeal,  must  have  some  way  of  keeping 
track  of  them. 

At  the  end  of  a  story  draw  three  short  vertical  marks 
and  surround  them  by  a  ring,  or  else  within  a  circle 
write,  "The  End." 


2o8  Making  a  Newspaper 

Make  frequent  paragraphs  and  before  each  one 
place  a  paragraph  mark,  not  forgetting  to  indent.  A 
new  paragraph  should  be  started  with  every  change  of 
subject.  Where  a  sentence  ends  at  the  bottom  of  a  page 
and  there  is  danger  that  the  printer  will  make  a  para- 
graph where  none  is  desired,  run  a  line  from  the  last 
word  down  to  the  edge  of  the  paper  and  run  another 
line  from  the  first  word  on  the  following  page  to  the 
top  of  the  paper.  These  lines  notify  the  printer  to 
"make  even."  When  a  paragraph  ends  at  the  bottom 
of  a  page  add  a  paragraph  mark. 

Do  not  erase  or  write  over.  When  you  have  made 
a  mistake  run  your  pencil  through  the  words  that  are 
to  be  omitted,  and  make  a  fresh  start.  Do  not  leave 
one  or  two  words  scattered  among  a  nest  of  correc- 
tions, as  they  may  be  overlooked.  Rewrite  sentences 
or  paragraphs  rather  than  run  any  risk. 

When  quoting,  place  quotation  marks  at  the  begin- 
ning only  of  each  paragraph  except  the  last  one,  which 
carries  marks  at  both  the  beginning  and  the  end.  A 
quotation  within  a  quotation  carries  single  marks, 
'thus,'  and  a  quotation  within  this  carries  '  ''double 
marks."  '  Quotations  that  carry  more  than  two  sets 
of  marks  are  not  allowed.  Another  form  of  ex- 
pression must  be  employed. 

Italics  and  parenthesis  marks  are  forbidden  in  many 
offices,  and  even  when  allowed  they  should  be  used 
sparingly.  A  single  line  drawn  under  a  word  tells 
the  printer  that  it  is  to  go  in  Italics.  Two  lines  call 
for  SMALL  CAPITALS,  and  three  lines  for  CAPITALS. 

Do  not  abbreviate.  A  circle  drawn  around  a  num- 
ber or  an  abbreviated  word  instructs  the  printer  to 
spell  it  out,  but  the  device  is  not  looked  upon  with 
favor,  as  it  only  shifts  work  to  the  printers'  shoulders. 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  209 

In  most  offices  numbered  streets  up  to  and  including 
one  hundred  are  spelled  out. 

Punctuate,  if  you  know  how.  If  you  do  not  know 
how  do  not  attempt  to  cover  up  your  ignorance  by 
throwing  in  marks  at  random.  Until  you  learn  how 
to  punctuate,  be  content  with  marking  periods.  Make 
your  periods  large  enough  to  be  seen  easily.  Many 
reporters  surround  the  dot  with  a  circle,  or  use  a  small 
cross  instead  of  the  dot. 

If  you  purposely  misspell  a  word  or  make  an  absurd 
statement,  write  on  the  margin :  ''Follow  Copy."  If 
you  do  not  the  printer  may  attempt  a  correction. 

Be  sure  that  you  do  not  omit  the  word  "not."  This 
is  a  common  mistake  and  it  always  makes  trouble :  the 
trouble  is  serious  if  the  ''not"  happens  to  be  omitted 
from  in  front  of  a  word  like  "guilty." 

If  your  capital  letters  are  of  the  same  form  as  your 
small  letters  and  differ  from  them  in  size  only,  mark 
your  capitals  by  drawing  three  lines  under  them.  In 
some  offices  capitals  must  differ  from  small  letters  in 
form  as  well  as  size. 

Ahvays  cross  the  t's  and  dot  the  i's.  Fearing  that 
a  u  will  be  taken  for  an  n,  make  a  small  mark  under 
it.  Mark  an  n  by  a  line  above.  If  you  are  not  sure 
that  any  word  will  be  understood  print  it.  Don't  take 
chances. 

Be  careful  of  streets  and  numbers.  Do  not  write 
street  where  you  mean  avenue,  and  be  extremely  care- 
ful not  to  transpose  numbers. 

Print  proper  names  where  there  is  the  least  chance  of 
mistake  and  be  sure  to  spell  a  name  the  same  way  all 
through  a  story;  nothing  angers  the  average  man  more 
than  to  have  his  name  misspelled  in  a  newspaper. 
Ask  how  names  are  spelled  if  you  are  in  doubt  while 


2IO  Making  a  Newspaper 

gathering  news ;  half  the  time  it  is  not  safe  to  trust  to 
sound — Burns  and  Byrnes,  for  example.  Take  pains 
to  get  surnames  and  initials;  usually  there  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  writing:  "A  man  of  the  name  of  Jones." 

In  waiting  a  death  notice  be  positive  alDout  initials ; 
do  not  be  content  with  referring  to  the  city  directory 
for  them.  A  death  notice  should  invariably  include 
the  person's  age,  cause  of  death  and  time,  and  time 
and  place  of  funeral. 

Names  of  railroads  should  be  given  in  full. 

Be  watchful  in  writing  firm  names.  The  New 
York  reporter  who  wrote  that  Blank  &  Co.,  brokers, 
had  made  an  assignment,  when  it  was  J.  B.  Blank 
&  Co.  who  were  in  trouble,  involved  himself  and  his 
paper  in  difficulties  that  made  work  for  the  lawyers. 
It  happened  that  two  men  of  the  same  name  headed 
brokerage  firms. 

Designate  police  stations  and  police  courts  in  a 
manner  intelligible  to  the  general  public;  the  "19th 
precinct"  means  nothing  to  most  persons.  And  it  is 
just  as  well  where,  as  in  New  York,  street  numbers 
usually  proceed  without  reference  to  intersecting 
streets,  to  give  the  nearest  intersecting  street  in  addi- 
tion to  a  street  number.  Few  persons  can  tell  offhand 
how  far  up  town  2700  Broadway  is,  or  at  which 
elevated  railroad  station  they  shall  alight  if  they  wish 
to  go  to  400  Manhattan  Avenue. 

The  stress  laid  upon  accuracy  in  newspaper  offices  is 
greatly  underestimated.  Reporters  are  expected  to  get 
names,  numbers,  and  main  facts,  right  at  all  hazard, 
and  they  are  reprimanded  when  it  is  found  that  through 
carelessness  they  have  made  even  minor  misstatements. 
Exaggeration  is  often  winked  at  where  the  departure 
from  reality  can  hurt  no  one;  but  no  city  editor  will 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  2  1 1 

print  a  story  that  a  reporter  confesses  is  not  true.  He 
may  make  it  plain  that  he  demands  a  magnified  recital, 
but  he  docs  not  want  to  be  told  that  the  demand  has 
been  recognized.  Usually  reporters  strive  to  get  the 
exact  facts.  Persons  who  find  fault  with  the  news- 
papers for  their  errors  would  have  less  to  say  if  they 
spent  a  single  day  gathering  news.  They  would  find, 
for  example,  that  when  four  persons  witness  an  acci- 
dent, each  one  has  a  different  story  to  tell,  although  all 
are  truthful  and  endeavor  to  be  accurate.  A  reporter 
coming  on  the  scene  after  the  accident  is  an  hour  old, 
must  accept  the  story  that  seems  most  plausible,  and 
it  is  nothing  against  him  if  some  persons  who  witnessed 
the  affair  declare  his  story  wrong.  How  easy  it  is  for 
an  occurrence  to  be  viewed  in  different  ways  is  every 
day  illustrated  in  the  courts.  Where  an  effort  is  made 
to  place  the  blame  for  an  accident  or  a  street  fight,  the 
witnesses  are  generally  about  evenly  divided. 

No  paper  has  room  for  an  out  and  out  liar,  and  it 
goes  hard  with  a  reporter  who  purposely  tells  a  false- 
hood about  an  individual  or  an  organization.  Editors, 
too,  are  averse  to  offending  classes,  such  as  nationali- 
ties, and  this  is  well  proved  by  the  growing  rarity  in 
the  papers  of  dialect  stories.  By  no  means  do  the 
newspapers  assume  the  intolerant  attitude  in  which 
they  are  pictured.  They  are  quick  to  listen  to  complaints, 
particularly  if  the  persons  who  make  them  have  some 
standing,  and  they  are  every  year  displaying  greater 
readiness  to  make  retractions.  It  has  become  pretty 
generally  understood  among  intelligent  persons  that 
a  newspaper  can  be  reached  through  its  pocket  if  in 
no  other  way,  and  in  all  the  larger  cities  there  is  an 
increasing  number  of  lawyers  who  busy  themselves 
spreading  the  information.     The  man  who  is  libeled 


212  Making  a  Newspaper 

in  these  days  is  almost  sure  to  have  it  brought  to  his 
attention  that  more  than  one  lawyer  is  willing  to  under- 
take a  suit  for  damages  on  a  percentage  basis.  And 
even  when  he  has  no  grounds  upon  which  to  threaten 
a  suit  for  damages,  the  man  who  goes  to  a  news- 
paper office  to  make  a  complaint  is  now  sure  of  con- 
siderate treatment;  is  not  discouraged  by  long  waits 
or  requests  to  call  again,  nor  passed  around  from 
pillar  to  post.  The  following  notice,  prominently  dis- 
played in  the  reception  room  of  the  New^  York  World's 
editorial  rooms,  makes  clear  the  attitude  of  the  editors 
of  that  publication: 

"Any  person  calling  at  the  office  asking  a  correction 
of  any  publication  in  any  edition  of  the  World  must  be 
taken  by  the  employee  applied  to  direct  to  the  Manag- 
ing Editor  or  City  Editor. 

"Any  employee  violating  this  rule  will  be  dismissed." 

A  reporter  should  be  slow  to  write  anything  that 
attacks  a  man's  character  or  his  credit.  It  is  all 
right  to  say  that  a  man  has  been  arrested  when  such  is 
a  fact,  but  it  is  bad  policy  to  say  or  even  intimate  that 
a  m.an  is  to  be  arrested ;  nor  is  it  safe  to  announce  that 
a  man  is  guilty  of  a  crime  before  his  guilt  has  been 
decreed  by  the  courts.  The  police  do  not  make  arrests 
every  time  they  threaten  to,  and  a  man  tried  and  found 
not  guilty,  or  discharged  for  lack  of  evidence,  is  innocent 
in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  A  reporter  runs  a  risk  even  when 
he  quotes  the  police  as  saying  that  a  prisoner  is  guilty; 
a  policeman  has  no  license  to  declare  sentence  any 
more  than  any  other  individual,  and  a  reporter  can 
write:  "it  is  alleged,"  "they  say,"  and  "it  is  reported" 
without  insuring  his  paper  in  the  least  against  a  suit 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  213 

for  damages.  These  phrases  so  ghbly  shpped  into 
newspaper  stones  are  nothing  more  than  sham  de- 
fenses. The  charge  of  neghgence  is  hard  to  prove, 
and  for  this  reason  physicians  are  looked  upon  as 
dangerous  game  by  newspapers;  of  course,  they  are 
slow  to  attack  lawyers.  It  does  not  do  to  write : 
*'Jones  says  that  Smith  is  a  scoundrel  and  a  liar," 
unless  the  reporter  is  ready  to  prove  the  allegations 
in  court,  and  it  does  not  do  to  be  tricky  and  write: 
*Ts  Smith  a  scoundrel?"  or  ''We  do  not  believe  Smith 
is  a  scoundrel."  To  be  frank,  an  experienced  news- 
paper reporter  who  goes  into  the  law  of  libel  care- 
fully, always  shudders  to  think  of  the  number  of  times 
he  has  unwittingly  laid  himself  open  to  attack.  It  is 
actionable  to  present  only  one  side's  testimony  in  the 
report  of  a  court  trial,  and  a  score  of  other  things  are 
actionable  which  newspapers  do  every  day.  In  gen- 
eral, a  reporter  is  safe  if  he  plays  fair.  But  he  should 
not  take  it  upon  himself  to  suppress  news  on  his  own 
initiative  because  he  thinks  it  libelous.  His  duty  is  to 
carry  the  news  to  his  office  and  let  the  editors  do  the 
deciding. 

With  many  young  reporters  the  notion  exists  that 
a  newspaper  man  is  not  at  his  best  unless  he  is  finding 
fault.  They  go  out  of  their  w^ay  to  employ  ridicule 
and  sarcasm,  and  pride  themselves  on  their  ability  to 
annoy  and  hurt.  Some  of  them  get  so  bad  that  they 
are  always  ready  to  stretch  the  truth  for  the  sake  of 
setting  down  what  they  think  are  particularly  telling 
examples  of  their  own  smartness;  and  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  occasionally  experienced  newspaper  men 
who  pose  as  fair  judges  are  the  worst  offenders. 
Supposed  to  be  critics  they  substitute  "flash  talk"  for 
criticism,  and  deride  because  this  gives  them  the  best 


214  Making  a  Newspaper 

opportunities  to  make  telling  hits.  The  critic  who 
belittles  everything  is  frequently  not  the  keen  observer 
that  he  would  have  it  supposed;  not  daring  to  pro- 
nounce a  thing  good  and  thus,  in  a  manner,  stand 
sponsor  for  it,  he  censures  always,  hoping  that  those 
who  differ  with  him  will  be  suspicious  that  they 
admire  because  they  are  not  entirely  competent  to 
judge.  Anyone  can  find  fault,  and  almost  anyone 
can  say  mean  things,  but  there  are  few  persons  who 
can  praise  without  becoming  fulsome  and  effusive. 
This  is  something  that  every  young  reporter  should 
remember.  Moreover,  it  is  neither  becoming  nor 
brave  to  attack  a  person  who  cannot  defend  himself. 
The  newspaper  worker  who  prides  himself  on  his 
ability  to  ridicule  usually  needs  a  lesson  on  the  subject 
of  fair  play.  If  he  is  hard  to  impress  he  not  infre- 
quently gets  the  lesson  in  the  courts. 

On  an  evening  paper  the  main  force  of  reporters 
begins  work  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning.  As  fast  as 
a  man  finishes  one  assignment  he  gets  another,  and 
this  continues  until  the  close  of  the  day.  If  he  gets 
any  lunch  it  is  because  one  of  his  assignments  permits 
him  to  drop  into  a  restaurant,  as  the  city  editor's 
schedule  makes  no  allowance  for  hunger.  Morning 
paper  reporters  are  expected  to  reach  the  ofifice  be- 
tween noon  and  i  o'clock.  Most  of  them  get  assign- 
ments without  delay,  and  generally  they  get  back  to  the 
office,  and  finish  their  first  stories  by  5.30  o'clock. 
Those  who  do  this  then  go  out  for  dinner,  returning  at 
the  end  of  an  hour  to  take  other  assignments.  Having 
written  second  stories,  most  of  the  men  are  allowed 
to  go  home,  and  generally  the  of^ce  is  pretty  well 
cleared  a  half  hour  before  midnight. 

Over  their  afternoon  assignments  morning  reporters 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  2 1  5 

can  take  their  own  time.  They  need  not  call  their 
search  for  news  closed  until  they  feel  sure  that  they 
have  covered  every  point,  and  engaged  in  writing  they 
are  allowed  to  set  their  own  pace.  On  evening  assign- 
ments they  must  bestir  themselves,  and  late  at  night 
their  stories  are  frequently  taken  from  them  a  page  at  a 
time.  Evening  paper  reporters  have  to  work  under 
pressure  constantly.  Almost  always  a  man  has  to  cut 
his  hunt  for  new^s  a  little  short  in  order  to  get  his  in- 
formation into  the  office  in  time  for  the  next  edition, 
and  it  is  the  usual  thing,  wdien  he  writes  in  the  office, 
for  a  copy  boy  to  stand  at  his  side  ready  to  carry  off 
each  page  as  fast  as  it  is  finished.  Not  often  does  an 
evening  paper  reporter  get  a  chance  to  go  over  his  story 
before  it  goes  to  the  copy  readers;  an  experienced 
man,  when  the  opportunity  does  present  itself,  is  glad 
to  accept  it. 

Although  they  are  always  subject  to  instructions 
reporters  have  plenty  of  license.  Indeed,  the  "stars," 
receiving  very  close  directions,  are  led  to  believe  that 
they  have  not  been  giving  satisfaction  in  the  fullest 
degree,  and  hark  back  over  their  performances  for  a 
week  or  two  in  efforts  to  ascertain  wherein  they 
have  failed.  The  more  commonplace  newsgatherers 
do  not  get  as  much  freedom  as  do  the  leaders,  but  not 
often  are  they  more  than  lightly  fettered.  One  result 
is  that  the  reporters  have  a  great  deal  more  to  say 
about  what  gets  into  the  paper  and  how,  and  what 
stays  out,  than  is  generally  supposed.  The  man  w^ho 
imagines  that  a  reporter  is  only  a  messenger  or 
an  errand  runner  is  much  mistaken,  and  the  mistake 
may  cost  him  dearly  if,  thinking  himself  safe  from 
reprisal,  he  goes  out  of  his  way  to  be  ugly  when  he  is 
approached  by  a  newspaper  representative.     The  re- 


21 6  Making  a  Newspaper 

porter,  first  of  all,  if  ihe  man  is  anything  more  than  a 
momentary  consideration,  can  defend  himself  valiantly 
and  even  make  a  forward  movement  of  great  aggres- 
siveness, and  having  good  reason  for  feeling  aggrieved, 
he  can  generally  go  a  step  further  and  get  his  editors 
to  espouse  his  cause.  No  first-class  paper  asks  its  re- 
porters to  accept  insults  in  silence,  and  few  of  them 
will  fail  to  support  their  men  when  they  are  attacked. 

The  power  a  reporter  may  wield  is  particularly  well 
illustrated  by  the  following  incident  which  occurred  in 
an  Eastern  city:  A  certain  professional  man  upon 
whom  the  reporters  were  occasionally  forced  to  call, 
owing  to  interests  which  he  represented,  while  angry 
one  day  over  some  extraneous  matter,  pounced  upon  a 
young  reporter  who  happened  into  his  office,  and  sub- 
jected him  to  an  atrocious  tongue-lashing.  Astonished, 
the  object  of  the  attack,  who  had  never  seen  the  man 
before,  asked  wherein  he  had  offended.  The  reply  he  re- 
ceived was  an  order  to  get  outside  the  door.  About  a 
half-dozen  years  later  the  professional  man  announced 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  nomination  for  a  high  city 
office,  and  then  the  reporter,  by  this  time  a  political 
writer,  got  the  chance  for  which  he  had  been  waiting. 
He  told  his  editor-in-chief  about  the  attack  that  had 
been  made  on  him,  and  after  proving  that  the  man  had 
none  of  the  qualities  of  a  vote-getter,  received  per- 
mission to  oppose  the  nomination  in  the  paper.  He 
repaid  the  debt  with  interest  in  a  single  article,  which 
set  the  man  forth  as  the  overbearing,  intolerant, 
domineering  individual  he  was,  and  did  it  so  skillfully 
that  even  the  man's  friends  and  supporters  had  to  ac- 
knowledge, after  reading  it,  that  he  stood  no  chance 
of  election.  The  article  put  the  candidate,  whose 
prospects  had  until  its  appearance  been  of  the  best,  en- 


Writing  a  Newspaper  Story  2  1 7 

tirely  out  of  the  running,  and  further,  it  induced  the 
party  leaders  to  cross  his  name  off  their  hst  of  eHgibles 
for  all  time. 

To  their  credit,  the  battles  in  which  reporters  engage 
for  personal  reasons  are  exceedingly  rare.  Commonly, 
when  they  get  the  credit  for  performances  of  this  kind 
they  are  only  acting  under  orders,  and  fight  strongly 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  are  faithful  soldiers. 
As  a  rule  reporters  do  not  carry  chips  on  their  shoulders 
and  are  slow  to  take  offense.  Rebuffed  when  asking 
questions,  they  ask  themselves  what  they  would  have 
done  had  the  same  questions  been  put  to  them,  and 
make  plenty  of  allowance  for  momentary  losses  of 
temper. 

Frequently,  though,  reporters  do  go  to  some  pains  to 
be  helpful.  Convinced  that  a  cause  is  just,  they  keep 
it  before  the  public,  and  gain  adherents  for  it  by  refer- 
ring to  it  as  if  its  merits  were  everywhere  acknowl- 
edged. For  an  individual  they  can  perform  service 
equally  valuable,  and  many  a  man  who  imagines  that 
his  name  gets  into  the  papers  because  the  editors  ad- 
mire him,  if  he  only  knew  it,  is  indebted  to  the  report- 
ers alone.  It  is  almost  an  unheard-of  thing  for  editors 
to  tell  the  reporters  to  advance  the  cause  of  any  person 
not  firmly  established  in  public  life.  The  reporters 
must  be  the  first  to  recognize  worth ;  if  they  fail  to  see 
it  the  editors  never  hear  of  it,  as  they  view  the  world 
through  the  eyes  of  their  representatives. 

What  the  reporters  can  accomplish  when  they  try 
is  illustrated  now  and  then  when  they  bring  into  view 
and  uphold  as  a  humorist  and  philosopher  some  illiter- 
ate individual  who  is  willing  to  pose  as  something  that 
he  would  like  to  be.  The  campaign  usually  opens 
with  the  individual  meeting  the  reporters  in  a  friendly 


2 1 8  Making  a  Newspaper 

spirit,  making  a  couple  of  original  or  timely  remarks 
and  telling  the  reporters  to  say  whatever  they  please 
about  him.  Finding  that  he  will  "stand  for  it,"  the 
reporters  put  into  his  mouth  all  the  good  stories,  wit- 
ticisms, and  jokes  of  which  they  can  think.  He  gets  the 
credit  for  all  the  bright  sayings  and  slang  expressions 
they  can  manufacture,  and  not  infrequently  becomes  a 
national  character.  The  Bowery  funny  men  are  not 
real.  They  are  only  paper  men  constructed  to  turn 
the  product  of  the  reporters'  brains  into  space-rate 
money. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
NEWS  FROM  OUTSIDE  THE  CITY. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  at  the  present  time 
very  few  large  newspapers  which  collect  all  their  tele- 
graph news  themselves ;  not  more  than  could  be  counted 
upon  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  The  others  get  the  bulk 
of  their  information  concerning  what  is  going  on  in  the 
outside  world  from  one  or  another  of  the  great  news- 
gathering  organizations,  of  which  there  are  about  half 
a  dozen  operating  in  this  country.  Any  one  of  these 
concerns  can  give  a  good  service,  but  one  of  them 
which  is  conducted  on  the  co-operative  expense-sharing 
plan  overshadows  all  the  others.  It  maintains  over 
34,000  miles  of  leased  wires,  has  a  correspondent  in 
every  city  and  in  almost  every  village  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  represented  directly  or  indirectly,  for  it 
maintains  working  agreements  wnth  several  foreign 
news  agencies,  in  every  civilized  country  in  the  world. 
Also  it  employs  many  special  correspondents,  who  can 
be  sent  on  short  notice  to  any  places  where  their  pres- 
ence is  deemed  advisable. 

While  the  newsgathering  organizations  undoubtedly 
tend  to  destroy  competition,  all  the  patrons  of  any  one 
of  them  being  placed  on  the  same  general  footing,  they 
have  probably  more  than  any  other  agency  enabled  the 
American  newspapers  to  become  the  universal  re- 
flectors they  now  are.  So  accustomed  have  newspaper 
readers  become  to  having  columns  and  columns  of 

219 


220  Making  a  Newspaper 

foreign  intelligence  and  news  sent  from  distant  parts 
of  our  own  country  offered  to  them  every  day,  that 
they  forget  about  the  labor  of  procuring  it  and,  except 
in  rare  instances,  give  no  thought  to  its  great  cost.  But 
it  is  not  so  many  years  since  even  the  greatest  papers 
printed  only  the  extremely  important  foreign  news, 
and  gave  very  brief  accounts  of  happenings  in  dis- 
tant parts  of  the  United  States.  There  are  plenty  of 
newspaper  workers  who  can  remember  the  time  when 
the  appearance  of  a  half-column  long  cablegram  called 
for  wide  comment. 

To  gain  an  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  the  scope 
of  American  newspapers  has  widened  in  recent  years 
one  need  only  compare  the  reports  of  the  fighting 
between  Russia  and  Japan  with  those  printed  when 
Japan  had  China  for  an  opponent.  The  change  is 
made  even  more  apparent,  for  here  the  enemies  and 
the  fighting  ground  are  the  same  in  both  instances, 
when  one  compares  the  reports  that  came  from  South 
Africa  during  the  last  war  between  the  Boers  and  the 
English  with  those  received  when  these  foes  clashed 
less  than  fifteen  years  before.  During  the  last  war 
the  papers,  even  those  of  the  smaller  cities,  told  about 
the  battles  at  length  and  frequently  gave  details  of 
skirmishes.  In  1886,  the  report  of  the  important  battle 
of  Majuba  Hill,  so  often  referred  to  in  the  course  of 
the  second  war,  as  presented  in  one  of  the  foremost 
New  York  papers  occupied  just  six  lines.  In  1878  the 
death  of  Pope  Pius  IX  was  set  forth  in  some  of  the 
New  York  papers  in  a  ten-line  story,  and  even  this 
came  not  from  Rome  but  from  London.  When  Pope 
Leo  XIII  died  the  foremost  American  papers  printed 
almost  a  page,  most  of  it  direct  from  Rome.  At  the 
present  time  papers  in  the  leading  cities  receive  from 


News  from  Outside  the  City  221 

the  co-operative  news  association  about  50,000  words 
a  clay,  and  of  this  a  fifth  sometimes  comes  from  abroad. 
The  ordinary  newsgathering  organizations  are  in 
effect  nothing  more  than  news  retailers.  Collecting 
the  news  at  an  enormous  expense  they  deliver  it  to  each 
subscriber  at  a  fraction  of  its  cost,  the  price,  omitting 
the  question  of  profit,  being  the  first  cost  divided  by  the 
number  of  subscribers.  The  great  co-operative  organ- 
ization corresponds  to  an  exchange,  so  far  as  United 
States  news  is  concerned.  Each  paper  which  is  a 
member — there  are  about  seven  hundred  of  them — 
contributes  its  choice  news  and  in  return  gets  the 
gleanings  of  the  other  members  and  the  information 
collected  by  the  organization's  own  reporters.  There 
are  four  divisions  of  the  association,  Eastern,  Central, 
Southern,  and  Western  with  headquarters  or  centers  in 
New  York,  Chicago,  Washington,  and  San  Francisco 
respectively,  and  within  these  main  divisions  are  a  num- 
ber of  small  sub-divisions.  Each  paper  receives  all 
the  news  of  its  own  sub-division,  except  that  gathered 
by  its  immediate  rivals,  and  the  particularly  important 
news  of  all  the  other  divisions.  The  news  of  most 
small  cities  in  which  it  has  members  the  association 
procures  at  no  cost  except  telegraph  tolls,  the  editors  or 
ow^ners  of  the  papers  sending  their  stories  that  are  of 
more  than  local  interest  to  the  nearest  distributing  office 
without  compensation.  In  large  cities  the  organiza- 
tion maintains  salaried  editors  or  managers,  who  are 
kept  supplied  with  proofs  from  the  ofifices  of  local  mem- 
bers and  thus  enabled  to  get  the  news  on  the  wires 
with  little  delay.  In  Washington,  the  state  capitals, 
and  a  few  of  the  largest  cities  staffs  of  good  reporters 
are  employed,  and  wherever  there  is  a  local  news- 
gathering  concern  the  larger  organization  receives  its 


22  2  Making  a  Newspaper 

service  as  does  any  of  the  subscribing  newspapers.  In 
villages  the  organization  has  correspondents  who  are 
paid  for  such  of  their  contributions  as  get  into  print. 
One  set  of  foreign  correspondents  is  all  that  is  needed. 
The  news  these  foreign  correspondents  contribute  is 
distributed  impartially,  abbreviated  stories,  however, 
being  sent  to  the  papers  of  small  cities. 

A  paper  which  receives  the  service  of  one  of  the 
newsgathering  organizations  may,  it  can  easily  be 
seen,  get  along  very  well  without  having  correspond- 
ents of  its  own.  The  news  is  poured  into  its  office 
from  the  nearest  headquarters  of  the  organization  every 
day,  and  as  long  as  the  editors  are  content  to  do  with- 
out beats  they  need  not  give  a  thought  to  what  may 
be  going  on  in  the  outside  world.  But  the  largest 
papers  are  not  satisfied  to  print  only  what  comes  from 
the  news  agencies.  Each  one  employs  two  or  three 
foreign  correspondents,  stations  men  in  half  a  dozen 
or  so  of  the  leading  American  cities,  and  in  addition 
has  a  great  number  of  space-paid  correspondents  scat- 
tered in  different  parts  of  the  country.  To  their  special 
representatives  the  papers  look  for  occasional  beats  and 
for  detailed  reports  of  important  happenings,  which 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  a  paper  often  prints  two  re- 
ports of  one  event ;  one  is  furnished  by  a  news  agency, 
the  other  by  a  special  correspondent.  A  paper  must 
also  look  to  special  correspondents  when  it  desires 
partisan  political  news,  for  supplying  papers  of  all 
faiths  the  newsgathering  organizations  remain  neutral 
at  all  times. 

In  some  cities  the  papers,  even  receiving  the  service 
of  a  news  agency,  send  their  staff  reporters  to  dis- 
tant places  where  there  is  momentous  news  to  be  gath- 
ered, but  were  the  truth  known  it  would  be  found  that 


News  from  Outside  the  City  223 

most  of  them,  when  they  dispatch  their  men  on  long 
and  expensive  expeditions,  do  so  in  self-defense.  A 
few  publications,  well  supplied  with  money,  ambitious 
to  attract  attention  to  themselves,  take  the  initiative, 
and  their  competitors  follow  the  lead  because  they  can 
do  nothing  else  without  losing  prestige.  The  Xew 
York  dailies  would  certainly  have  got  along  with 
fewer  special  correspondents  during  the  Spanish- 
American  war  had  it  not  been  that  a  publication  which 
only  a  short  time  before  had  passed  into  new  hands 
was  trying,  regardless  of  cost,  to  build  up  its  circula- 
tion. Every  New  York  paper  made  expenditures  that 
w^ere  out  of  all  proportion  to  earnings  during  this  war, 
and  some  of  them  sustained  losses  that  offset  the  earn- 
ings of  years.  The  leader  in  extravagance,  it  was 
afterward  declared  by  its  editor,  was  operated,  while 
the  w^ar  was  at  its  height,  at  an  average  loss  of  $300,- 
000  a  month. 

The  original  newsgathering  concern  came  into  ex- 
istence as  a  result  of  over-keen  competition,  and  the 
date  of  its  founding  proves  that  newspaper  rivalry  is 
by  no  means  a  new  thing.  There  were  as  early  as  1840 
several  New  York  papers  that  were  spending  more 
than  $15,000  a  year  each,  to  maintain  swift-sailing 
vessels  which,  cruising  about  from  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred miles  outside  of  Sandy  Hook,  intercepted  in- 
coming ships  and  hurried  the  foreign  newspapers  and 
the  letters  from  correspondents  they  carried  ashore, 
and  a  few  years  later  it  w^as  a  common  occurrence  for 
the  reporters  of  rival  papers  to  race  from  Boston  to 
New  York  on  special  trains  with  the  news  landed  at 
Boston.  Hoping  to  humble  a  great  paper  several  pub- 
lications once  went  so  far  as  to  send  a  fast  vessel  all  the 
way  across  the  Atlantic  to  procure  the  latest  intelli- 


224  Making  a  Newspaper 

gence  for  them.  To  some  of  the  New  York  newspaper 
owners  who  were  getting  lots  of  excitement  but  sav- 
ing little  money,  it  occurred  late  in  the  forties  that  a 
change  was  advisable,  and  after  some  preliminary  talk 
they  came  to  an  agreement  that  they  should  join 
forces,  maintain  among  them  only  one  set  of  men  to 
gather  the  news  from  certain  places,  and  divide  the 
expense.  The  dominating  co-operative  association  is 
the  outgrowth  of  this  agreement. 

The  telegraph  editor — he  might  well  be  called  the 
world  editor,  for,  leaving  out  only  his  own  city  and  the 
territory  immediately  surrounding  it,  his  news  field 
extends  to  the  ends  of  the  earth — who  is  employed  on  a 
paper  which  does  not  belong  to  a  newsgathering 
organization,  has,  of  course,  a  difficult  place  to  fill,  but 
if  time  enough  is  given  him  and  he  is  experienced,  he 
usually  succeeds  in  building  up  a  satisfactory  news- 
gathering  system  of  his  own.  With  his  machine  in 
fine  working  order  the  foreign  news  reaches  him  auto- 
matically; the  news  of  the  leading  home  cities  is  ac- 
quired most  of  the  time  without  trouble;  and  that  of 
the  small  towns  calls  only  for  a  fair  amount  of  atten- 
tion. The  foreign  correspondents  always  give  good 
service.  Stationed  in  the  leading  cities,  by  keeping 
their  eyes  and  ears  open  and  buying  plenty  of  late 
editions,  they  come  into  possession  of  all  the  note- 
worthy news,  and  thoroughly  competent,  they  know 
how  to  write  readable  stories  and  how  to  get  them 
across  the  ocean  quickly.  Rarely  does  the  telegraph 
editor  find  it  necessary  to  give  orders  to  these  repre- 
sentatives. The  correspondents  in  the  important  home 
cities  work  much  as  do  the  foreign  correspondents. 
They  forward  the  news  they  think  worth  forwarding 
without  waiting  to  ask   questions,   and   most  of  the 


News  from  Outside  the  City  225 

stories  they  write  can  be  turned  over  to  the  printers 
just  as  they  are  received.  These  correspondents  are 
held  responsible  for  the  news  not  only  of  their  own 
cities  but  for  that  of  all  the  nearby  towns,  and  a  few 
of  them  forward  their  contributions  over  private  tele- 
graph wires. 

It  may  here  be  pointed  out  that  owing  to  the  differ- 
ence in  time  between  the  two  cities  the  New  York 
morning  papers,  at  a  cost  confined  only  to  telegraph 
tolls,  are  enabled  to  present  to  their  readers  on  the 
same  day  that  it  first  appears  all  the  news  that  is  col- 
lected by  their  London  contemporaries.  When  the 
London  papers  are  issued  the  New  York  papers  are  still 
four  hours  away  from  the  presses,  and  in  the  interval 
the  American  correspondents  seize  upon  and  transmit 
anything  and  everything  that  catches  their  fancy.  The 
New  York  evening  papers,  too,  take  advantage  of  the 
difference  in  time,  so  that  none  is  ever  beaten  on  news 
published  in  London. 

Every  first-class  large  city  daily,  whatever  its 
method  of  getting  the  news  of  distant  places,  endeavors 
to  have  a  correspondent  in  every  city  and  village 
within  a  radius  of  150  miles  of  the  place  where  it  is 
published.  These  correspondents  are  always  paid  at 
space  rates,  and  anxious  to  make  their  bills  as  large  as 
possible  a  good  many  of  them  insist  on  supplementing 
their  worth  while  stories  with  a  lot  of  trash.  Some  of 
the  mediocre  stories  do  get  into  print,  but  this  is  be- 
cause there  is  a  dearth  of  real  news  in  the  office  at  the 
time  they  are  received,  or  because  the  telegraph  editor 
does  not  wish  the  w^ould-be  money-makers  to  become 
disgruntled  and  give  up  their  places,  thus  putting  him 
to  the  trouble  of  getting  men  to  succeed  them.  Upon 
the  man  whose  cupidity  runs  away  with  his  common 


226  Making  a  Newspaper 

sense  so  far  that  he  cannot  be  repressed  by  gentle  means, 
the  telegraph  editor  exercises  a  sure  restraint  by  noti- 
fying the  telegraph  companies  not  to  forward  stories 
which  he  attempts  to  send  offhand.  A  correspondent 
against  whom  an  order  of  this  kind  is  filed  is  thereafter 
compelled  to  "query,"  that  is,  to  send  an  outline  of  the 
news  he  has  and  allow  the  telegraph  editor  to  decide 
whether  it  is  desired.  Some  papers  require  all  their 
space  correspondents  to  query,  but  the  saving  that  re- 
sults is  often  dearly  acquired.  A  saving  of  $500  looks 
pretty  small,  for  example,  when  at  12  o'clock  some 
night  a  telegram  is  received  which  reads :  ''Catastrophe, 
fifty  persons  killed,  seventy-five  injured;  how  much." 
And  this  message  is  no  more  blind  than  many  that 
reach  the  telegraph  editor.  Queries,  like  news  articles, 
are  always  sent  ''collect"  by  the  correspondents,  and 
anyone  who  comes  into  possession  of  a  piece  of  news 
which  he  thinks  is  not  likely  to  be  widely  known  is 
at  liberty  to  send  queries  to  as  many  papers  as  he 
desires,  without  fear  that  he  will  be  required  to  pay  for 
them.  Not  replying  to  a  query,  an  editor  means  that 
he  does  not  care  for  the  story  offered. 

In  the  leading  cities  most  of  the  telegraph  news — 
the  press  associations  in  some  places  receive  the  news 
at  their  own  offices  and  distribute  it  written  out,  either 
by  messenger  or  through  pneumatic  tubes — is  delivered 
to  the  newspaper  offices  over  direct  wires,  and  it  is  re- 
ceived by  particularly  competent  operators  who,  inter- 
preting the  dots  and  dashes  on  typewriters,  or  "mills," 
as  they  call  them,  turn  out  good,  clean  copy  that  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  edit;  almost  invariably  it  is  correctly  capi- 
talized and  punctuated,  and  it  is  unusual  for  a  sheet  to 
be  marred  by  a  "bull,"  the  operators'  word  for  a 
blunder,  or  even  by  an  erasure.     The  performances 


News  from  Outside  the  City  227 

of  the  press  operators  who  receive  legislative  news  and 
court  decisions  from  Washington  are  especially  won- 
derful in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  news  is  not  only 
sent  by  *'fast"  men,  but  is  "coded,"  or  abbreviated;  an 
ordinary  telegraph  operator  could  make  nothing  of  it. 
"Scotus,"  for  example,  the  press  receiver  expands  into 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  *'HR,"  into 
House  of  Representatives.  There  are  hundreds  of 
these  code  devices;  so  many  that  they  make  a  good- 
sized  volume. 

Lest  there  be  some  misunderstanding,  it  must  be 
explained  that  while  a  few  papers  maintain  private 
wires  of  great  length — one  New  York  publisher  has 
leased  wires  connecting  his  papers,  which  are  located 
in  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles,  Chicago,  New  York, 
and  Boston — most  papers,  to  adhere  closely  to  facts, 
have  uninterrupted  connections  only  with  the  nearest 
headquarters  of  the  telegraph  companies.  When  a 
story  is  filed  by  a  correspondent  anywhere,  the  operator 
to  whom  the  manuscript  is  delivered  calls  the  nearest 
wire  chief,  who  is  perhaps  in  another  town,  and  tells 
how  much  of  a  story  he  has.  The  wire  chief  there- 
upon gets  into  communication  with  the  city  in  which 
the  paper  is  located,  and  as  soon  as  the  newspaper  has 
a  free  wire  a  connection  is  established  with  the  opera- 
tor who  has  the  story  to  deliver.  The  moment  the 
story  is  concluded  the  "made"  wire  is  "broken,"  and 
another  correspondent's  story  gets  a  chance  at  the 
newspaper  "loop."  In  the  largest  newspaper  offices 
there  are  frequently  as  many  as  a  dozen  telegraph 
operators  employed. 

Orders  sent  by  telegraph  editors  are  always  to  the 
point,  usually  reading  something  like :  "Rush  5CXD 
words    railroad    accident."     The    papers    get    special 


228  Making  a  Newspaper 

rates  from  the  telegraph  companies — where  the  charge 
for  ordinary  messages  is  twenty-five  cents  for  ten 
words  the  press  rate  is  a  third  of  a  cent  a  word — but 
the  editors  save  a  word  whenever  they  can,  and  they 
try  to  make  their  correspondents  do  the  same  by  warn- 
ing them  frequently  of  the  necessity  of  adhering 
closely  to  facts  and  avoiding  ''fine  writing."  The  cor- 
respondents are  not,  however,  expected  to  abbreviate 
or  skeletonize.  Even  the  cable  telegrams  of  the 
foreign  correspondents  are  commonly  sent  complete 
except  for  the  omission  of  words  like  "and,"  "the," 
"that,"  "on,"  and  "in,"  and  these  are  left  out  only 
where  there  is  no  possibility  of  the  editor  filling  in  the 
wrong  word.  During  a  war,  code  or  cipher  is  forbid- 
den, the  censors  refusing  to  pass  it;  and  a  message  of 
which  they  are  the  least  suspicious  they  always  reject. 
If  a  correspondent  does  deceive  the  censors  and  is  found 
out,  his  usefulness  is  at  an  end,  and  he  can  count  him- 
self lucky  if  he  is  alloAved  to  start  for  home  without 
undergoing  a  term  of  imprisonment.  Incidentally,  the 
stories  about  war  correspondents  filing  sections  of  the 
Bible  to  keep  rivals  from  getting  a  chance  at  the  wires 
are  out  of  date.  While  the  rule  of  the  cable  and  tele- 
graph companies  is  to  send  messages  in  the  order  they 
are  received,  they  also  have  another  rule  which  says 
that  legitimate  business  is  not  to  be  delayed.  A  war 
correspondent  could,  of  course,  insist  that  a  chapter 
of  the  Bible  be  forwarded  to  his  paper,  but  the  censor 
would  have  to  give  his  assent  before  the  cable  ofiice 
would  accept  it,  and  it  would  not  be  sent  until  all  real 
news  was  out  of  the  way. 

The  hours  of  the  telegraph  editor  of  an  evening 
paper  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  city  editor;  but  in 
a  morning  paper  office  the  telegraph  editor  does  not 


News  from  Outside  the  City  229 

begin  work  until  late  in  the  afternoon  or  early  in 
the  evening,  the  managing  editor  looking  after  the 
queries  and  sending  out  orders  previous  to  his  arrival. 
Always  the  day  is  started  by  an  inspection  of  the 
schedule  prepared  by  the  man  who  reads  the  papers, 
and  whenever  opportunity  offers,  the  telegraph  editor 
goes  over  the  rival  papers  that  are  brought  into  the 
office  to  see  whether  he  is  missing  anything.  Whether 
he  has  to  work  hard  for  his  news  or  whether  it  comes 
to  him  easy,  the  telegraph  editor  must  be  a  quick  and 
accurate  copy  reader,  for  many  of  the  stories  that  reach 
him,  particularly  from  small  towns,  are  written  by  un- 
trained men  and  need  thorough  revision.  Usually  there 
are  only  two  or  three  men  detailed  to  assist  in  read- 
ing telegraph  copy,  but  in  a  few  offices  in  the  leading 
cities  a  larger  force  is  employed,  and  almost  all  the 
stories,  including  those  received  from  the  newsgather- 
ing  organizations,  are  rewritten. 

The  telegraph  editor,  too,  must  possess  an  exceed- 
ingly good  stock  of  general  information,  and  be  well 
acquainted  with  his  geography,  for  the  worth  of  a 
telegram,  particularly  of  those  which  come  from  dis- 
tant places,  is  not  always  to  be  judged  by  its  length. 
If  he  gets  word  that  the  Duke  of  Perth  is  dead,  he 
ought  to  know  just  how  much  of  an  obituary  should 
be  prepared  in  the  office  and  tacked  to  the  message,  and 
when  he  hears  that  Ping  Pang  Fort  has  fallen,  he  must 
see  that  the  news  gets  into  the  paper  equipped  with 
an  elucidation  and  a  heading  befitting  its  worth.  In 
a  few  of  the  largest  offices  all  the  cable  news  is  edited 
by  one  man,  and  each  of  the  other  copy  readers  handles 
the  news  of  a  certain  section  or  certain  states.  Not 
often  does  a  telegraph  editor  or  any  of  his  assistants 
manufacture  news,  or,  in  the  vernacular,  employ  the 


230  Making  a  Newspaper 

"grapevine  wire."  In  almost  all  offices  this  practice 
is  strictly  forbidden. 

Digressing  for  the  moment  from  big-city  journalism, 
mention  may  be  made  of  the  manner  in  which  small- 
town dailies,  papers  which,  although  not  rich  enough 
to  use  the  telegraph  lines,  are  still  ambitious  to  keep 
their  readers  informed  and  up  to  date,  get  the  news 
of  the  outside  world.  It  is  forwarded  to  them,  strange 
to  say,  by  express,  and  not  infrequently  makes  that 
stage  of  the  journey  between  the  railroad  stations  and 
the  editorial  rooms  in  wheelbarrows.  And  more  odd 
still,  it  has  to  be  edited  with  saws.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  news 
reaches  the  country  towns  not  in  manuscript  form, 
but  turned  into  type,  or  to  be  concise,  stereotype  plates 
that  are  ready  to  be  placed  on  the  press.  Plate  matter 
is  a  boon  to  the  country  editor,  in  that  it  enables  him  to 
present  the  whole  world's  news  while  it  is,  if  not  quite 
fresh,  yet  far  from  stale ;  and  because  it  permits  him  to 
get  along  with  an  exceedingly  small  force  of  printers. 
A  column  of  cable  news  that  only  a  few  hours  before 
cost  some  city  paper  thousands  of  dollars  the  country 
editor  can,  using  plate  matter,  print  in  his  paper  almost 
as  cheaply  as  he  can  a  three  "stick"  local  article  that 
calls  for  the  services  of  a  compositor. 

Establishments  where  plate  matter  is  prepared  are 
found  in  almost  every  part  of  the  country;  there  is 
scarce  a  city  of  over  100,000  population  not  close  to  a 
still  larger  city  which  does  not  boast  of  one  or  more. 
The  head  man  in  each  establishment  is  the  editor. 
Having  evening  publications  for  his  clients  he  starts 
to  work  early  in  the  morning,  probably  before  daylight, 
and  going  over  the  freshly  issued  local  papers,  gleans 
from  them  all  the  important  news.     Having  occasion 


News  from  Outside  the  City  231 

to  appropriate  political  articles  he  edits  them  until 
they  are  unbiased,  for  his  patrons  are  of  all  beliefs; 
long  articles  he  condenses,  and  stories  of  local  hap- 
penings he  changes  so  that  they  can  bear  date  lines. 
Sufficient  material  having  been  prepared  he  sends  it  to 
the  printers  and  has  it  turned  into  type,  and  after  this 
arranges  the  articles  in  column  lengths.  From  the 
type  matrices  are  now  made,  and  from  each  matrice 
as  many  plates,  each  a  column  long  and  a  column  wide, 
as  there  are  papers  to  be  supplied,  are  cast.  After  this 
the  plates  are  arranged  in  sets,  one  of  each  kind  to  a 
set,  inclosed  in  strong  iron-bound  boxes  and  hurried 
to  the  express  offices  or  railroad  stations.  All  this 
work  takes  only  a  few  hours  and  the  plates  reach  their 
destinations  in  time  to  be  used  in  the  evening  papers. 
Where  the  customers  are  morning  papers  the  same 
procedure  is  followed,  only  here  the  news  is  gathered 
from  the  early  edition  evening  papers. 

Of  course,  forwarding  duplicate  plates  to  perhaps 
twenty  editors  and  operating  at  small  expense, — the 
news  itself  costs  him  only  the  few  cents  required  to 
procure  copies  of  the  city  papers, — the  plate-matter 
manufacturer  is  able  to  make  his  charges  to  each  cus- 
tomer exceedingly  low.  And  even  the  express  charges 
are  kept  down.  The  plates,  instead  of  being  shipped 
''type  high,"  and  in  consequence,  heavy,  are  before 
packing  planed  until  they  are  each  hardly  an  eighth  of 
an  inch  thick,  after  which  grooves  are  cut  on  their 
under  sides  so  that  they  will  fit  forms  that  are  kept,  in 
all  lengths,  in  the  country  offices.  So  long  as  he  has 
only  entire  columns  to  fill,  the  country  editor  can  make 
rapid  progress  in  preparing  plate  matter  for  publica- 
tion, for  he  has  to  do  nothing  more  than  slip  the  plates 
on  the  forms;  but  having  to  fill  parts  of  columns  (pieces 


232  Making  a  Newspaper 

of  plate  matter  can  be  distributed  in  a  page  partly 
filled  with  ordinary  type)  or  wishing  to  cut  out  some 
article  he  must  take  off  his  coat  and  go  to  work  with 
a  saw.  There  are  a  great  many  country  weeklies 
which  use  whole  pages  of  plate  matter,  which  is 
now  procurable  bearing  farm  notes,  short  stories, 
fashions,  continued  stories,  sermons,  editorials,  and 
almost  anything  else,  and  where  this  is  the  case  the  edi- 
tor's work  is  frequently  still  further  reduced.  He  is 
supplied  not  with  plates  but  with  bundles  of  papers 
printed  on  one  side,  and  to  issue  his  paper  he  need  only 
print  his  local  news  on  the  blank  side.  In  offices  where 
this  practice  is  followed  "our  patent  inside"  is  a  stand- 
ing joke  among  the  printers. 

Space-paid  correspondents  who  come  to  understand 
as  well  as  do  the  staff  reporters  and  the  salaried  cor- 
respondents the  importance  of  getting  their  news  into 
the  office  early,  are  ,the  ones  who  make  the  most  money 
and  stand  highest  in  the  telegraph  editor's  estimation. 
Starting  his  day,  the  telegraph  editor  Welshes  for  mo- 
mentous news,  but  news  of  some  kind  or  what  ap- 
proaches news  he  must  have,  and  for  the  men  who 
come  to  his  assistance  there  are  rewards.  A  story 
which  reaches  an  evening  paper  office  at  8  o'clock 
in  the  morning  is  almost  sure  to  get  into  print,  and 
many  which  would  of  a  certainty  go  into  the  waste- 
basket  at  noon  are  deemed  worthy  at  10  o'clock.  Late 
in  the  day  only  exceptional  stories  pass  inspection,  and 
even  these  are  pruned.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  force  con- 
tributions on  a  morning  paper,  since  the  telegraph 
editor  has  a  good  many  hours  in  which  to  supply  his 
share  of  material,  but  here,  too,  the  early  stories  are 
most  lightly  judged.  To  the  prompt  correspondents 
also,  there  are  often  sent  orders  for  details  which  mean 


News  from  Outside  the  City  233 

to  them  more  space  and  more  money.  In  passing, 
when  a  telegraph  editor  transmits  to  a  correspondent 
who  has  been  supplying  a  running  story,  such  as  a 
report  of  a  court  trial,  a  message  reading  "Good- 
night," he  wishes  to  inform  him  that  the  last  edition 
for  the  day  has  been  placed  on  the  press,  and  that  he 
is  relieved  from  duty;  and  receiving  a  message  which 
reads :  ''30,"  the  correspondent  can  interpret  it  into  the 
same  thing. 

By  taking  the  trouble  to  learn  something  about  the 
style  of  the  paper  for  which  he  writes,  and  informing 
himself  concerning  the  kind  of  news  it  wants  and  the 
kind  it  does  not  want,  the  average  correspondent  could 
not  only  make  his  work  bring  him  a  much  greater 
return  than  it  does,  but  also  save  himself  a  great  deal 
of  needless  labor.  A  few  papers  supply  to  their  repre- 
sentatives small  books  of  instructions,  but  even  having 
studied  one  of  these  a  newsgatherer  must  use  his  judg- 
ment continually,  for  in  the  newspaper  business  as  in 
others,  there  are  few  rules  which  do  not  have  excep- 
tions. Almost  all  of  the  books  issued,  for  example, 
say:  "Do  not  send  trivial  accidents."  Yet  it  is  pos- 
sible for  an  accident,  small  in  itself,  to  be  worth  the 
attention  of  every  paper  in  the  country  because  of  its 
peculiarity,  or  because  of  the  prominence  of  persons 
concerned. 

To  make  sure  that  his  stories  will  not  be  delayed  in 
transit  a  correspondent  should  always,  at  the  end  of 
each  one,  write  the  time  of  filing  in  the  telegraph 
office.  Knowing  that  he  will  have  to  send  this  filing- 
time  paragraph,  no  operator  is  going  to  allow  a  story 
to  remain  in  his  hands  a  moment  longer  than  is  neces- 
sary. For  the  occasional  country  operator  who  will 
not  start  a  story  because  it  is  time  for  him  to  go  to 


234  Making  a  Newspaper 

dinner  or  because  it  is  time  to  close  the  ofifice,  there  is 
a  sure  treatment.  The  correspondent  need  only  write 
a  message  to  the  nearest  superintendent  of  the  tele- 
graph company,  reading  like  this:  "Have  thousand 
words  ordered  New  York  Star,  operator  refuses  to 
send,"  and  pass  it  over  the  counter  accompanied  by 
the  money  to  pay  for  it.  Invariably  the  operator  will 
undergo  a  change  of  heart.  A  correspondent  should 
keep  account  of  the  stories  he  sends,  and  where  pos- 
sible, should  forward  his  bill  in  the  form  of  a  string 
of  clippings.  Always  the  bill  should  be  accompanied 
by  the  orders  for  stories  received  from  the  paper. 

Although  as  has  been  pointed  out  every  paper  has 
ideas  of  its  own  as  to  what  constitutes  news,  there  is 
no  correspondent  who  will  not  be  benefited  by  a  careful 
study  of  the  following  instructions  issued  to  its  out-of- 
town  representatives  by  the  New  York  World: 

Send  facts — and  nothing  else.  Both  sides  of  every 
story.  Whatever  facts  are  calculated  to  interest,  in- 
form or  please  everybody,  everywhere,  are  good  news. 

A  fact  which  may  be  of  vital  importance  in  any  par- 
ticular locality  may  be  insignificant  for  the  average 
reader.  Imagine  yourself  a  stranger  set  down  in  the 
locality  which  you  represent,  and  judge  from  that 
what  occurrences  are  of  interest  to  other  strangers  all 
over  the  country. 

Put  into  your  story  only  those  facts  which  are  of 
interest  to  everyone.  Don't  waste  paper  writing  in 
the  story  matter  to  suit  or  please  the  person  who  gives 
you  the  information  or  others  having  a  direct  personal 
interest  in  the  matter. 

Events  involving  New  York  people  or  interests  have 
a  value  in  addition  to  their  ordinary  news  interest 


News  from  Outside  the  City  235 

which  justifies  more  of  a  story  than  would  otherwise 
be  sent. 

Accidents,  fires,  floods,  failures,  and  such  ordinary 
happenings  are  usually  covered  by  the  Associated 
Press,  and  specials  are  needed  only  when  the  event 
is  serious  enough  to  be  called  a  disaster.  An  early 
bulletin  of  them  is  appreciated,  however,  and  may  lead 
to  an  order  for  a  special. 

Casualties  of  every  sort  involving  no  loss  of  life  and 
property  damage  of  less  than  $100,000  are  not  worth 
sending  even  in  bulletins,  unless  peculiar  in  occasion, 
manner,  or  results,  and  of  interest  from  more  than 
their  importance. 

Indecent  assaults,  unmentionable  offenses,  breach  of 
promise,  abandonment,  and  similar  cases  are  seldom 
good  news.  Never  send  them  unless  the  circumstances 
are  very  unusual  or  the  persons  involved  very  con- 
spicuous.    Send  them  briefly  and  guardedly. 

Divorce  cases,  when  actually  on  trial,  are  good  news 
if  the  testimony  is  of  an  unusual  nature,  or  the  parties 
to  the  suit  are  well  known.  The  "cleaner"  they  are 
the  more  they  are  worth,  and  this  applies  to  all  scandal 
news. 

Never  send  positive  assertions  unless  you  have  the 
absolute  proof  of  their  correctness  ready  for  produc- 
tion at  a  moment's  notice.  The  English  language  is 
rich  in  words  of  qualification. 

Never  send  interviews  with  a  "well-known  citi- 
zen," "one  in  a  position  to  know,"  "a  prominent 
official,"  or  any  other  of  the  array  of  voluble  but 
anonymous  individuals. 

Do  not,  to  enhance  the  supposed  value  of  a  story, 
speak  of  people  as  "prominent,"  "well  known," 
**wealthy,"  or  "beautiful"  unless  they  really  are  so. 


236  Making  a  Newspaper 

Don't  send  speeches,  political  interviews,  reports  of 
committees  or  boards,  or  similar  things,  except  when 
specially  ordered. 

News  received  after  midnight  stands  little  chance 
of  being  printed,  but  brief  dispatches,  if  important 
enough,  are  available  as  late  as  i  a.  m.,  and  bulletins 
of  very  important  news  up  to  2  a.  m.  After  that  noth- 
ing goes  unless  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  This 
means  New  York  time,  and  the  hour  of  receipt  not  the 
sending  hour. 

Send  queries  at  any  hour  day  or  night.  File  news 
dispatches  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  morning, 
afternoon,  or  evening.  When  filing  before  6  p.  m. 
mark  across  the  top  of  the  first  page,  ^'Send  after  6 
p.  M."  This  because  dispatches  may  be  filed  at  any 
time  during  the  day  and  are  sent  in  the  order  received, 
but  if  sent  before  6  p.  m.  may  be  charged  double  rates 
by  the  telegraph  company. 

Send  by  telegraph,  except  matter  the  interest  of 
which  is  as  great  at  one  time  as  another,  and  which  no 
other  newspaper  is  likely  to  get.  The  mails  will  do  for 
that  and  for  special  stories  for  Sunday  or  other  than 
regular  news  editions. 

On  small  matters  and  any  time  after  9  p.  m..  New 
York  time,  make  your  query  a  brief  summary  of  the 
news,  sending  names  and  essential  facts,  clearly  and 
concisely,  thus : 

"North-bound  passenger  No.  4  Pennsylvania  col- 
lided with  freight,  Jamestown  Station,  to-night. 
James  Smith,  engineer,  killed;  passenger  fireman  and 
three  of  freight  crew  injured,  fireman  fatally.  Pas- 
sengers all  right.     Wrong  signal.     200?" 


News  from  Outside  the  City  237 

This  can  be  rewritten  in  the  office  into  a  special 
covering  the  news  if  more  is  not  wanted  or  it  is  too  late 
to  order,  and  if  so  you  will  be  paid  for  it  as  for  a 
special. 

Do  not  exaggerate  your  news  in  queries.  It  will 
be  detected  at  once  and  all  your  queries  thereafter  will 
be  subjected  to  a  discount  that  will  work  to  your  dis- 
advantage. State  clearly  and  simply  the  exact  facts 
as  to  the  news  you  offer. 

Do  not  be  secretive  about  your  cjueries.  State 
plainly  what  your  news  is.  A  blind  cjuery  will  almost 
invariably  lead  to  a  small  order,  when  the  story  may  be 
worth  much  more. 

Be  careful  to  write  plainly.  Telegraph  operators 
can  read  hen  tracks,  but  not  always  correctly. 

Keep  friendly  with  the  telegraph  operators  if  pos- 
sible. They  can  do  you  a  great  many  favors  if  they 
wish  to.  Treat  them  fairly  and  don't  expect  im- 
possibilities. 

Remember  that  the  long  distance  telephone  is  always 
available.  Use  it  when  the  telegraph  wires  fail  or 
are  overcrowded. 

Your  appointment  as  representative  does  not  mean 
that  news  will  be  received  from  no  one  else  in  your 
locality.  News  will  be  taken  from  any  reliable  source, 
and  if  you  neglect  to  query  us  on  any  news  in  your 
vicinity,  or  if  your  query  is  very  much  later  than  one 
sent  in  from  some  independent  source,  the  news  will  be 
ordered  from  someone  else.  The  only  way  in  which 
you  can  insure  exclusive  possession  of  your  field  is 
by  showing  us  by  your  work  that  we  may  rely  upon 
you  absolutely  for  early  and  good  stories  of  events  in 
your  vicinity. 


238  Making  a  Newspaper 

The  co-operative  newsgathering  association,  to 
which  reference  has  been  made,  occupies  such  a  promi- 
nent place  in  newspaper  affairs  that  a  few  words  more 
about  its  organization  and  operation  will  not  be  amiss. 
It  is  organized  more  like  a  club  than  an  every-day 
business  venture,  and  admission  to  membership  is  de- 
cided in  any  city  by  the  m.embers  there  existing.  The 
result  of  this  is  that  in  most  places  papers  outside  the 
fold  stay  there  unless  they  buy  out  existing  member- 
ships or  ^'franchises."  The  last  membership  that 
changed  hands  in  New  York  cost  the  purchaser  about 
$100,000 — more  rather  than  less — and  along  with  it 
went  only  some  worn-out,  antiquated  presses,  a  few 
hundred  dollars'  worth  of  printing  machinery  and 
office  furniture,  and  the  good  will  of  a  paper  whose 
readers  were  so  few  that  they  did  not  count.  On 
the  surface  the  purchase  money  was  paid  for  a  news- 
paper; in  reality  it  was  paid  for  the  paper's  member- 
ship in  the  newsgathering  association.  As  soon  as  the 
money  was  paid  in  this  instance  the  purchased  publica- 
tion was  absorbed  by  the  paper  which  desired  its  mem- 
bership, and  the  transaction  was  completed  as  in- 
tended. In  New  York  at  the  present  time  a  new  mem- 
bership in  the  association  is  not  procurable  at  any 
price,  and  there  is  no  existing  membership  for  sale  at 
bargain  rates.  A  membership  confers  privileges  on 
one  paper  only,  so  where  a  morning  and  an  evening 
edition  are  issued  from  one  establishment  two  "fran- 
chises" are  necessary  to  get  the  association's  complete 
service.  Morning  and  evening  memberships,  moreover, 
are  distinct,  which  precludes  a  morning  member  chang- 
ing to  an  evening  member,  and  vice  versa.  The  associa- 
tion's co-operative  plan  of  operation,  of  course,  elimi- 
nates the  possibility  of  profits  or  dividends.     The  ex- 


News  from  Outside  the  City  239 

penses,  amounting  to  about  $2,000,000  a  year,  arc 
divided  equitably,  the  amount  any  member  pays  being 
based  on  the  population  within  a  given  radius  of  the 
place  of  publication  and  the  cost  of  maintaining  the 
special  wires  the  service  requires. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PREPARING  FOR  JOURNALISM 

Of  education  a  newspaper  worker,  either  editor  or 
reporter,  cannot  have  too  much  as  long  as  he  is  not 
through  it  made  pedantic  and  intolerant.  A  fair  edu- 
cation, whether  it  has  been  acquired  in  the  classroom 
or  through  the  hardest  kind  of  work  with  none  other 
than  himself  as  a  teacher,  he  must  have.  All  the  sub- 
jects taught  in  the  elementary  schools  prove  useful, 
and  for  any  position  a  pretty  thorough  knowledge  of 
English  grammar,  American  history,  the  elements  of 
civil  government,  geography,  and  elementary  arith- 
metic are  next  to  necessary.  An  occasional  reporter 
can  manage  to  get  along  without  knowing  much  about 
some  of  these  things,  but  this  is  only  because  he  is 
associated  in  his  office  with  men  who  can  tide  him  over 
when  he  gets  stuck.  Not  often  are  the  higher  mathe- 
matics employed  in  newspaper  work.  But  the  train- 
ing their  study  gives  is  far-reaching ;  when  it  is  known 
that  a  man  excels  in  mathematics  the  chances  always 
are  that  he  is  above  the  ordinary  in  other  branches  of 
learning.  Some  of  the  editors  and  reporters  who 
tmderstand  Latin  and  Greek  say  that  the  knowl- 
edge helps  them  frequently.  The  ones  who  know 
nothing  about  either  say  that  if  their  ignorance  handi- 
caps them  the  handicap  is  so  light  that  they  never  feel 
it.  Both  sides,  though,  unite  in  declaring  that  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Latin  and  Greek  certainly  does  not 
.  240 


Preparing  for  Journalism  241 

impede  anyone's  progress.  Every  accomplishment 
helps  in  a  newspaper  office. 

There  was  a  time  when  newspaper  editors  looked 
askance  at  college  graduates,  but  conditions  have 
changed.  In  large  cities  college  men  now  get  the 
preference,  and  in  the  length  of  Park  Row,  in  New 
York,  can  be  found  scattering  representatives  of  almost 
every  university  in  the  world,  and  small  college  gradu- 
ates by  the  score.  A  college  education  will  not  give  a 
man  more  brains  than  nature  set  aside  for  him,  but  it 
will  add  something  to  the  value  of  the  existing  supply, 
for  no  man,  however  dense  he  is,  can  have  things  ex- 
plained to  him  every  day  for  three  or  four  years  by 
professors  qualified  to  explain  without  benefiting. 
Denying  this,  one  would  also  have  to  deny  that  a  young 
man,  whom  a  successful  merchant  took  the  trouble 
to  instruct,  counsel,  and  advise  daily  for  a  like  period, 
would  come  to  know^  some  valuable  truths  about  busi- 
ness. Going  to  college,  moreover,  a  man  is  compelled 
to  study,  and  must  perform  set  tasks  daily.  The  man 
who  does  not  go  may  study  and  may  work  regularly; 
but  again  he  may  not.  For  the  most  part,  the  persons 
who  talk  the  loudest  about  the  harm  colleges  do  make 
no  distinction  between  college  graduates  and  men  who 
have  gone  to  college,  and  giving  illustrations  of  their 
contentions,  point  out  individuals  who  were  dismissed 
from  college  for  the  very  reasons  that  continue  to 
render  them  objectionable.  The  colleges,  particularly 
the  larger  ones,  conduct  a  thorough  v;eeding  out 
process,  and  by  no  means  every  starter  finishes. 

While  a  college  education  is  desirable,  it  is  for  news- 
paper w^ork  far  from  essential.  Every  large  paper  has 
on  its  stafif  excellent  reporters  and  copy  readers  who 
never  saw  the  inside  of  a  college  building,  and  in  the 


242  Making  a  Newspaper 

same  class  are  a  few  of  the  highest  paid  editors.  Some 
of  these  men  began  as  office  boys,  others  became  re- 
porters after  having  served  apprenticeships  at  the 
printer's  case.  But  the  men  who  rise  in  daily  jour- 
nalism, after  starting  handicapped  by  the  lack  of  an 
education,  are  in  every  instance  found  to  possess  in  a 
high  degree  that  important  qualification  for  success — 
mental  alertness.  And  those  who  reach  the  big  prizes 
possess,  also,  a  rare  quality,  commonly  known  as 
executive  ability,  which  far  overshadows  education 
and  mere  brains  in  the  opinion  of  most  men  who  have 
won  success. 

For  the  young  man  who  is  entering  college  with  the 
intention  of  fitting  himself  for  journalism  there  is  a 
great  wealth  of  subjects  from  which  to  choose;  but 
the  task  of  making  a  selection  which  will  bring  the 
greatest  return  is  a  hard  one.  In  some  of  the  largest 
institutions  about  seventy  years  would  be  required  to 
complete  all  the  courses  offered.  Editors  agree  that  a 
broad,  liberal  education  is  best  for  the  would-be  news- 
paper man.  But  there  are  not  many  of  them  who  do 
more  than  generalize  when  they  are  asked  to  tell  just 
what  a  broad,  liberal  education  is.  Nor  are  college 
professors  as  clear  as  they  might  be.  The  person 
would  be  presumptuous  indeed,  under  these  circum- 
stances, who  would  dare  say :  "These  are  the  subjects 
which  should  be  studied  by  the  young  man  who  intends 
to  engage  in  journalism."  But  it  cannot  be  taken 
amiss  if  a  few  are  named  which  return  good  value  for 
the  time  given  them. 

English  comes  first.  No  matter  how  much  else  a 
man  knows  he  is  debarred  from  any  except  the  lowest 
places  if  he  cannot  write  good  English.  There  are 
some  men  occupying  high  positions  who  learned  how 


Preparing  for  Journalism  243 

to  write  in  newspaper  offices,  but  they  got  the  chance 
:\o  learn  only  because  they  early  proved  themselves  keen 
observers  and  excellent  newsgatherers.  It  is  not  safe 
for  an  average  man  to  count  on  learning  after  start- 
ing to  work.  Editors  and  copy  readers  are  willing 
to  give  a  beginner  points  on  newspaper  style,  but  they 
object  to  teaching  grammar,  and  they  will  do  it  only 
when  wonderful  results  are  promised. 

United  States  history,  taught  by  a  man  who  knows 
the  subject,  is  also  worth  a  good  lot  of  the  student's 
time.  For  one  thing,  it  will  save  him  from  becoming 
a  calamity  howder  and  a  forecaster  of  national  ruin. 
The  newspaper  writers  who  are  continually  talking 
about  the  good  old  times  and  declaring  that  the  coun- 
try is  going  to  destruction  would  be  more  cheerful  if 
they  knew  as  much  about  their  country's  history  as 
they  should. 

Logic  is  another  subject  that  can  be  taken  up  profit- 
ably by  the  prospective  newspaper  worker.  Leaving 
names  aside,  the  man  who  studies  elementary  logic  gets 
little  that  he  might  not  get  bit  by  bit  through  experi- 
ence, but  this  does  not  weigh  against  logic  as  a 
definite  study.  If  a  man  can  have  a  thing  explained 
to  him  in  detail  in  lessons  extending  over  a  few  months, 
he  is  certainly  foolish  to  allow  the  opportunity  to  go 
by  because  he  thinks  he  will  be  able  to  accumulate  the 
same  information  by  simply  living.  He  may  not,  in 
the  first  place,  live  long  enough  to  accumulate  it  all, 
and  secondly  there  is  only  the  probability  that  he  will 
get  it,  not  the  certainty.  Elementary  logic  is  worth 
while  to  the  student  if  it  makes  plain  to  him  nothing 
more  than  the  fact  that  a  thing  either  is  or  is  not. 
Grasping  this  truth  he  will  save  himself  a  lot  of  trouble 
and  incidentally  be  able  to  see  through  a  lot  of  shams 


244  Making  a  Newspaper 

which  he  is  sure  to  encounter.  Realizing,  too,  that  a 
thing  is  either  true  or  is  not  true,  he  will  not  distort, 
exaggerate,  or  misrepresent  with  the  mistaken  idea  that 
he  is  really  not  lying  but  only  presenting  the  case  as 
viewed  from  one  side. 

Another  subject  that  can  be  pursued  to  ad- 
vantage is  political  economy,  which  helps  a  man 
to  come  to  a  decision  when  a  thousand  questions 
arise.  It  does  not  make  him  infallible,  but  it  does  mili- 
tate against  mere  passiveness.  Having  studied  politi- 
cal economy  intelligently  a  man  is  led  to  think  even 
if  he  does  draw  wrong  conclusions,  and  the  probabili- 
ties are  that  he  will  be  right  much  oftener  than  he  will 
be  wrong. 

A  knowledge  of  finance,  which  is  now  taught  in  all 
the  large  universities,  may  prove  extremely  valuable 
to  a  newspaper  worker.  Not  many  young  men  enter 
a  newspaper  office  qualified  to  handle  news  of  the  stock 
markets,  banks,  crop  reports,  loans  and  discounts,  rail- 
road earnings,  bond  issues,  "corners,"  panics,  and  fail- 
ures, and  a  city  editor  always  congratulates  himself 
when  he  finds  that  he  has  one  on  his  stafT.  He  is 
pleased,  too,  to  learn  that  one  of  his  young  men  knows 
what  a  bank  statement  is,  and  can  explain  it  and  the 
message  it  contains  in  words  that  the  average  news- 
paper reader  can  understand. 

Most  old-time  newspaper  editors  shy  at  the  word 
psychology,  but  the  one  who  has  studied  psychology 
will  probably  acknowledge  that  it  has  benefited  him. 
With  sociology  it  is  the  same.  A  lot  of  fun  is  poked 
at  this  study,  but  it  is  healthy  enough  to  stand  it.  It 
presents  a  set  of  statistics  that  widens  anyone's  horizon, 
and  it  sheds  light  on  a  lot  of  topics  that  are  often  dis- 
cussed without  much  understanding. 


Preparing  for  Journalism  245 

For  a  newspaper  artist  an  education  along  general 
lines  can  be  either  a  possession  or  a  want,  without  any- 
one being  much  the  wiser  except  those  who  come  into 
close  contact  with  him,  but  if  he  is  to  be  other  than  a 
plodder  he  must  have  in  him  the  qualities  so  necessary 
for  the  other  workers,  those  which  enable  a  man  to 
see  news  when  it  exists  and  to  pick  out  its  most 
dramatic  points. 

Ambitious  to  become  a  newspaper  artist  and  think- 
ing that  he  has  in  him  the  essentials,  a  young  man 
should,  if  possible,  place  himself  under  a  competent 
instructor,  which  may  save  him  from  acquiring  faults 
of  which  he  cannot  later  rid  himself,  and  he  should 
practice  continually.  Having  acquired  enough  skill 
to  make  pictures  of  his  friends  and  his  every-day  sur- 
roundings, the  student  should  try  his  hand  at  street 
scenes,  the  groups  gathered  in  front  of  bulletin  boards 
and  around  the  push-cart  merchants,  and  from  this  he 
can  move  on  to  the  scenes  of  fires  and  accidents. 
Reaching  the  point  where  he  is  pretty  sure  that  he  is 
qualified  to  go  to  work  for  a  salary,  he  should  visit 
courtrooms  where  trials  that  are  attracting  wide  atten- 
tion are  in  progress.  Here,  wdiile  making  pictures  of 
his  own,  he  will  get  a  chance  to  see  journeymen 
newspaper  artists  at  work,  and,  proceeding  circum- 
spectly, will  be  able  during  recesses  to  make  their  ac- 
quaintance, or  at  least  to  have  them  look  at  his  draw- 
ings. If  they  think  his  work  is  up  to  the  mark  they  will 
probably,  their  opinions  having  been  solicited,  say  so 
and  perhaps  point  out  where  improvement  may  be 
made.  If  they  are  reluctant  to  make  comments  the 
novice  should  not  press  them,  for  they  are  not  un- 
likely keeping  quiet  through  kindness.  Having  praised 
a  beginner's  work,  the  newspaper  artists  will,  if  there 


246  Making  a  Newspaper 

is  time  to  spare  and  the  man  strikes  their  fancy,  tell 
him  how  to  go  about  learning  how  pictures  are  made 
ready  for  printing,  tell  him  where  he  might  find  em- 
ployment, and  perhaps  promise  to  speak  a  word  for 
him  where  it  will  count.  In  New  York  the  artists,  like 
the  reporters,  are  kindness  itself  to  beginners ;  in  view 
of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  newspaper  business  their  con- 
duct in  this  line  is  remarkable. 

Able  to  make  pictures  worth  printing,  but  not  find- 
ing a  situation,  the  novice  may  turn  his  talent  to  ac- 
count, and  perhaps  place  himself  in  the  way  of  steady 
employment  by  contributing  to  the  Sunday  papers, 
and  if  he  is  not  much  of  a  writer  himself  he  need  only 
visit  the  places  where  reporters  are  stationed  to  watch 
for  news,  to  find  plenty  of  men  who  will  be  willing  to 
collaborate  w^th  him,  furnish  the  writing  while  he 
furnishes  the  illustrations.  Another  market  for  his 
pictures  may  be  found  among  the  syndicates,  con- 
cerns which,  purchasing  special  material  of  every  kind, 
sell  it  to  papers  all  over  the  country.  The  same  story 
is  sold  to  perhaps  twenty  papers,  but  it  is  arranged 
that  all  shall  publish  it  on  the  same  day.  The  syndi- 
cates buy  short  stories,  jokes,  continued  stories,  a  little 
poetry,  in  brief,  anythmg  that  is  worth  printing,  and 
generally  they  pay  good  prices.  They  are  not,  how- 
ever, in  very  high  favor  with  special  article  writers,  for 
by  supplying  Sunday  papers  with  material  they  reduce 
the  authors'  market.  In  medium-sized  cities  many 
Sunday  papers  now  purchase  almost  everything  they 
use  from  the  syndicates. 

Best  paid  of  all  the  artists  are  the  cartoonists. 
Which  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  not  many  artists 
can  make  cartoons.  If  it  is  harder  to  make  a  sketch  of 
a  crowded  courtroom  than  it  is  to  make  a  copy  of  such 


Preparing  for  Journalism  247 

a  sketch,  so  it  is  many  times  more  difficult  to  make  a 
drawing  where,  after  evolving  the  idea  itself,  the  artist 
must  proceed  without  any  other  guide  than  his  own 
brain  creations.  For  a  beginner  to  become  a  cartoon- 
ist at  a  jump  is  next  to  impossible.  But  it  is  not  an 
unheard-of  performance  for  a  man  to  become  one,  at 
least  to  the  extent  that  he  is  employed  to  make 
''comics,"  after  only  a  few  months'  service.  Every 
now  and  then,  in  the  largest  cities,  some  young  man 
who,  combining  a  nimble  pencil  with  a  keen  wit,  can 
make  pictures  dealing  with  current  topics  which  will 
produce  laughs,  is  taken  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  news 
artists  almost  before  he  has  become  accustomed  to  his 
surroundings  and  launched  as  a  "feature"  on  his 
paper's  bill  board  advertisements.  Real  high-class 
cartoonists,  however,  are  rarely  found  to  be  youthful 
prodigies.  Almost  invariably  they  are  trained  artists 
whose  keenness  of  perception  and  acquaintance  with 
the  world  put  them  in  the  class  occupied  by  the  highest 
editors.  The  ability  to  draw  is  only  one  of  the  skilled 
cartoonist's  qualifications,  and  it  may  easily  be  a  second 
to  that  one  upon  which  his  reputation  actually  rests. 

Starting  a  picture  the  newspaper  artist  first  uses  a 
pencil,  and  the  sketch  is  made  about  twice  the  size  it 
is  intended  it  shall  be  when  it  appears  in  the  paper. 
The  picture  complete  in  pencil,  the  artist,  to  make  it 
ready  for  the  plate-makers — mechanical  workers 
whose  processes  do  not  concern  him — need  only  go 
over  it  in  ink  or  wash,  a  color  which  is  laid  on  with 
a  small  brush.  In  these  days  there  is  no  call  in  news- 
paper offices  for  engravers.  All  plates  are  made  by 
photographic  processes;  even  the  chalk  plate,  deemed 
a  wonderful  time  and  money  saver  ten  years  ago,  is 
now  out  of  date. 


248  Making  a  Newspaper 

Many  of  the  news  pictures  now  printed  are  made 
from  photographs  instead  of  drawings,  and  as  a  result 
the  photographer  has  become  as  much  a  fixture  in 
journaHsm  as  the  reporter  and  the  artist.  And  the 
newspaper  photographers  are  experts ;  men  who  know 
a  great  deal  more  than  how  to  point  a  camera  and 
press  a  button.  This  leads  to  the  explanation  that  the 
camera,  despite  the  changes  it  has  brought  about  in 
newspaper  illustrating,  has  not  accomplished  all  that 
was  promised  for  it  a  few  years  ago  when  the  artists 
were  beginning  to  fear  that  there  would  soon  be  no 
demand  for  their  services.  Cuts  can  be  made  from 
good  photographic  prints  just  as  they  leave  the  photog- 
rapher's hands,  but  if  best  results  are  to  be  obtained, 
the  pictures  must  be  gone  over  by  artists.  Outlines 
have  to  be  strengthened  by  ink  lines  skillfully  placed, 
shadows  have  to  be  taken  out,  and,  frequently,  back- 
grounds must  be  strengthened  or  obliterated.  Fancy 
borders,  too,  are  often  added.  For  a  poor  photograph 
the  services  of  an  artist  are  not  only  desirable  but 
requisite. 

The  rapidity  with  which  pictures  are  prepared  for 
publication  in  well-equipped  newspaper  offices  is 
almost  past  belief.  Cuts  are  every  day  made  from  line 
drawings  and  finished  photographs  in  thirty  minutes, 
and  in  an  establishment  where  every  facility  for  rapid 
work  is  afforded,  ''rush"  news  pictures  are  sometimes 
printed  in  the  paper  only  an  hour  after  the  moment 
when  the  exposed  photographic  plate,  still  in  the 
camera,  was  by  the  out-of-breath  photographer  de- 
livered at  the  door  of  the  art  department. 

To  the  reporter  who  is  paid  according  to  his  output, 
knowledge  is  not  only  power — it  is  equivalent  to  ready 
money.     Every  scrap  of  information  that  comes  his 


Preparing  for  Journalism  249 

way  he  turns  to  account.  If  he  finds  a  crowd  of  chil- 
dren playing  a  new  game  in  the  street  he  gets  one  of 
them  to  explain  it  to  him,  and  the  next  time  he  has  to 
wait  in  the  office  for  an  assignment,  puts  the  explana- 
tion on  paper,  dressing  it  up  so  that  it  will  make  in- 
teresting reading;  and  he  makes  use  of  all  the  fresh 
anecdotes  he  hears  in  the  same  way.  The  progressive 
space  man  is  rarely  idle,  even  on  his  day  of  rest.  It 
becomes  second  nature  for  him  to  pick  up  odds  and 
ends  that  may  be  turned  into  cash,  and  many  times  the 
readers  of  his  Sunday  paper  learn  what  he  has 
dreamed  although  not  realizing  that  they  are  read- 
ing dreams. 

Surprisingly  few  newspaper  workers  are  able  to 
write  shorthand,  and  a  great  many  contend  that  they 
are  glad  the  accomplishment  is  beyond  them.  Short- 
hand, they  say,  tends  to  make  a  man  a  mere  machine 
which,  intent  on  getting  words,  misses  expression  and 
meaning.  There  is  some  truth  in  this.  Taking  rapid 
dictation,  a  stenographer  writes  almost  automatically, 
and  gives  no  thought  to  anything  else  than  his  writing ; 
the  more  receptive  he  can  make  himself  the  better  is 
he  pleased.  A  newspaper  reporter,  on  the  other  hand, 
must  keep  his  wits  about  him  and  use  his  eyes  as  well 
as  his  ears,  for  he  is  always  expected  to  get  a  complete 
picture  rather  than  a  detailed  part  of  one.  Most  inter- 
views which  appear  in  the  papers  would  read  far  less 
smoothly  were  they  accurate  reports,  for  almost  every 
person  talking  at  length,  without  preparation,  pro- 
ceeds in  a  roundabout  way,  repeats,  goes  back  to 
qualify,  returns  to  one  subject  after  having  left  it  to 
deal  with  another,  and  uses  colloquialisms  and  inter- 
jections which  he  would  not  care  to  see  in  print.  The 
skillful  interviewer  allows  the  repetitions  to  go  in  one 


250  Making  a  Newspaper 

ear  and  out  the  other,  and  forgets  the  unimportant 
words  as  fast  as  they  are  uttered.  But  he  is  quick  to 
catch  odd  expressions,  mannerisms,  and  gestures ;  and 
adroitly  now  and  then  he  puts  in  a  word  or  a  question, 
and  without  making  it  apparent,  leads  the  conversa- 
tion where  he  desires  it  to  go.  Later,  when  he  is  put- 
ting the  interview  on  paper,  he  takes  up  the  subjects 
touched  on  in  the  order  of  their  news  value,  regardless 
of  where  they  came  in  the  talk. 

Should  he  be  sent  to  report  a  public  meeting,  a  re- 
porter does  not  tremble  over  his  inability  to  write 
shorthand.  On  his  arrival,  he  seeks  out  the  man  who 
is  to  deliver  the  principal  speech,  and  getting  him  to 
one  side,  asks  for  a  copy  of  it.  Usually  it  is  forth- 
coming, typewritten,  in  which  case,  while  the  audience 
is  later  being  dazzled  by  the  speaker's  ''impromptu" 
brilliancy,  the  reporter  prunes  the  speech  to  fit  his 
space  apportionment.  Having  procured  one  or  two 
good  speeches,  the  reporter  puts  the  other  orators  in 
the  "also  spoke"  class,  unless  they  say  something  that 
he  dares  not  allow  to  pass  unnoticed.  If,  however,  the 
reporter  fails  to  get  copies  of  speeches  in  advance,  he 
follows  them  when  they  are  delivered,  writing  the  gist 
of  them  as  rapidly  as  he  can  in  longhand.  He  does  not 
take  notes,  but  instead  writes  a  running  story  that  can 
be  sent  to  his  office  in  sections. 

Long  speeches,  such  as  those  delivered  at  political 
conventions  are,  if  copies  are  not  to  be  procured  in 
advance,  taken  by  corps  of  skilled  and  experienced 
stenographers.  Days  before  the  time  set  for  the  meet- 
ing, several  papers  acting  jointly  make  arrangements 
with  the  proprietor  of  some  stenographic  and  type- 
writing office  for  the  reporting  of  the  speeches.  The 
opening  of  the  meeting  finds  this  man  on  hand  with 


Preparing  for  Journalism  251 

perhaps  a  half-dozen  stenographers,  and  ten  minutes 
after  a  speaker  sits  down  the  end  of  his  address  is  on 
its  way  to  the  newspaper  offices.  While  the  stenog- 
raphers are  looking  after  the  talkers,  the  newspaper 
reporters,  sitting  near  by,  write  stories  telling  of  the 
crowd,  the  prominent  persons  present,  the  speakers' 
appearance  and  their  gestures,  the  effect  the  addresses 
have  on  the  audience,  the  decorations,  the  music,  and 
whatever  else  strikes  them  as  worth  making  known. 

Copies  of  messages  of  the  President  and  the  Gov- 
ernors are  always  given  to  the  large  newspapers  printed 
and  inclosed  in  sealed  envelopes  several  days  before 
the  time  set  for  their  delivery.  On  the  morning  of  the 
day  on  which  a  message  is  to  be  read,  the  editor-in- 
chief  or  the  managing  editor,  to  whom  a  paper's  copy 
is  intrusted,  breaks  the  seal  and  has  the  document  sent 
to  the  printers,  over  whom,  for  the  time,  strict  watch 
is  kept,  and  a  paper  containing  the  message  is  issued 
as  soon  as  possible  after  word  comes  by  telegraph 
that  the  reading  of'  the  message  has  begun. 

Reporters,  it  can  be  seen,  are  not  necessarily  short- 
hand writers.  But  it  is  going  too  far  to  say  that  short- 
hand is  a  detriment.  The  reporters  who  speak  against 
it  mean,  rather  than  this,  that  the  man  who  allows  it 
to  become  a  crutch  instead  of  a  tool  is  sure  to  suffer, 
and  they  might  add  that  decrying  shorthand,  they  are 
taking  it  for  granted  that  all  newsgatherers  have 
excellent  memories.  The  reporter  who,  while  using 
shorthand,  depends  upon  notes  no  more  than  do  other 
reporters  w'ho  write  longhand  only,  saves  himself 
much  labor  every  day,  and  occasionally  the  ability  to 
take  dictation  does  him  excellent  service,  as  is  the  case 
when  he  encounters  someone,  who,  while  willing  to 
talk  for  publication,  hesitates  because  he  fears  he  will 


252  Making  a  Newspaper 

not  be  correctly  quoted.  And  it  might  here  be  men- 
tioned that  partly  because  they  do  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  advertise  their  calling  wherever  they  go,  and 
partly  through  custom,  journeymen  reporters  in  the 
largest  cities  do  not  carry  notebooks.  The  brief  mem- 
orandums they  take  are  written  on  pads  formed  by 
folding  several  sheets  of  copy  paper  together,  or  on 
the  margins  of  folded  newspapers.  Not  wishing  to 
bring  smiles  to  the  faces  of  the  long-service  men, 
beginners  will  conform  to  the  custom. 

Editors  once  imagined  that  articles  written  on  the 
typewriter  were  necessarily  stilted  and  devoid  of  life, 
but  most  of  them  are  now  heartily  in  favor  of  the 
machines.  In  the  offices  of  all  evening  papers  which 
print  numerous  editions,  the  inside  workers  who  do 
rewriting  and  write  stories  telephoned  in,  are  required 
to  use  them,  and  the  number  of  offices  where  all  the 
reporters  have  to  use  them  is  constantly  growing.  In 
a  few  cities  it  is  taken  for  granted,  when  a  reporter 
says  that  he  is  qualified  to  do  general  work,  that  he  is 
a  typewriter  operator.  Newspaper  workers,  both  re- 
writers  and  reporters,  once  they  become  accustomed 
to  machines,  feel  it  a  hardship  when  they  have  to  fall 
back  on  pencils  or  pens.  They  can  more  than  double 
their  speed  with  machines,  and  they  contend  that  if 
there  is  any  difference  their  t3^pewritten  stories  are 
the  better;  as  they  are  able,  putting  down  the  words 
more  rapidly,  to  establish  a  closer  relation  between 
the  brain  and  the  hand.  Copy  readers  are  unani- 
mously in  favor  of  typewritten  stories,  for  handling 
them,  they  are  not  compelled  to  decipher  words,  while 
the  wide  spaces  between  the  lines  leave  room  for  easy 
interlineation.  In  New  York  a  great  many  morning 
paper   reporters   when   they   have   a   three   or    four 


Preparing  for  Journalism  253 

column  story  on  hand,  go  to  one  of  the  type- 
writing bureaus,  of  which  there  are  a  number  in  the 
vicinity  of  Park  Row,  and  dictate  to  an  operator  who 
writes  direct  on  the  typewriter. 

The  place  in  which  to  learn  the  newspaper  business 
is  a  newspaper  office.  But  this  does  not  mean  that 
part  of  it  could  not  be  learned  elsewhere.  It  means 
only  that  there  is  in  existence  no  well-equipped  school 
wdiich  teaches  journalism.  Undoubtedly,  the  elements 
of  newspaper  work  might  be  taught  as  successfully  as 
as  are  the  elements  of  law,  medicine,  or  anything  else. 
A  school  could  not  turn  out  finished  editors,  editorial 
writers,  or  first-class  reporters,  but  it  could  fit  men 
to  make  a  good  start  at  the  bottom,  with  better 
than  the  ordinary  prospect  of  advancement.  Nothing 
more  should  be  expected  of  it.  A  law  school  is  not 
condemned  because  it  does  not  produce  skilled  lawyers 
and  judges,  and  no  one  scoffs  at  a  school  of  medicine 
because  it  does  not  turn  out  past-master  specialists. 
But  newspaper  workers  never  tire  of  making  fun  of 
mythical  schools  of  journalism.  Journalism,  they  inti- 
mate, is  the  one  thing  that  cannot  be  taught  in  school. 
Everything  else  may  be.  But  journalism,  never !  In 
much  the  same  spirit  the  men  engaged  in  the  compos- 
ing rooms  insisted  until  a  few  years  ago  that  while 
machinery  could  supplant  every  other  manual  worker, 
it  could  never  oust  the  type-setter. 

Entering  a  school  where  experienced  editors  and 
reporters  would  teach  him  how  a  newspaper  office  is 
organized,  how  news  is  collected  and  handled,  give 
him  assignments  such  as  he  w^ould  get  in  actual  work; 
and  point  out  his  mistakes  and  show  him  how  to 
get  around  them,  a  young  man  would  certainly 
stand  a  better  chance  of  learning  the  groundwork  of 


254  Making  a  Newspaper 

the  newspaper  business  than  he  would  were  he  placed 
in  a  newspaper  office  and  left  to  struggle  alone.  Of 
course,  though,  the  successful  school  of  journalism 
could  not  make  a  competent  newspaper  man  out  of 
everyone  who  came  to  hand.  But  sifting  out  half  the 
beginners,  it  would  still  have  the  right  to  stand  as  a 
good  teacher,  for  the  newspapers  get  a  very  small  per- 
centage of  their  beginners  past  the  novice  class.  Where 
teaching  is  concerned,  the  newspapers  are  not  wonder- 
ful successes.  Their  methods  are  those  of  the  amateur 
swimming  masters  who  throw  their  pupils  into  deep 
water  at  the  first  lesson,  and  discard  those  who  can- 
not get  ashore  unaided. 


CHAPTER  XV 
GETTING  A  SITUATION 

The  best  course  for  a  man  who  wishes  to  get  a 
place  on  the  staff  of  a  newspaper  to  pursue,  is  to  go 
to  a  newspaper  office  and  ask  for  employment.  Some- 
times the  managing  editor  or  his  assistant  does  the 
hiring,  usually  the  city  editor;  the  boy  who  is  found 
guarding  the  entrance  to  the  editorial  rooms  may  be 
depended  upon  to  give  correct  information  on  this 
score,  for  he  is  called  on  repeatedly  every  day  to  exer- 
cise his  knowledge  on  the  subject. 

For  the  inexperienced  man  there  is  only  one  place 
open.  The  stories  told  of  young  men  who,  fresh  from 
college,  are  employed  as  book  reviewers,  or  editors  in 
this  or  that  department,  and  those  which  represent 
them  as  getting  places  which  permit  them  to  do 
whatever  work  they  please,  when  and  where  they 
please,  are  all  nonsense.  In  the  same  category  are 
the  tales  that  picture  beginners  as  starting  to  work  at 
salaries  which  permit  them  to  furnish  apartments,  eat 
in  first-class  restaurants,  ride  in  cabs,  and  go  to  the 
theater  whenever  they  feel  like  it.  The  beginner  starts 
as  a  reporter ;  his  work,  little  more  at  first  than  errand 
running,  is  laid  out  for  him;  his  hours  are  long,  and 
he  receives  for  his  services  only  enough  to  live  on, 
practicing  strict  economy.  In  New  York  (conditions 
are  different  in  some  other  cities)  there  are  no  per- 
quisites which  go  with  a  situation  on  a  newspaper. 

255 


256  Making  a  Newspaper 

Neither  editors  nor  reporters  are  allowed  to  apply  for 
street  railway  passes,  and  they  get  no  free  tickets  to 
the  theaters.  Usually,  when  a  reporter  asks  a  theat- 
rical manager  for  passes,  the  manager  writes  a  letter  to 
the  managing  editor,  and  the  reporter  gets  a  warning, 
and  offending  a  second  time,  is  dismissed.  The  dra- 
matic critics  all  receive  two  tickets  for  each  first  night 
performance,  but  they  regard  tickets  they  cannot  use 
as  personal  possessions  and  commonly  bestow  them 
upon  friends  outside  of  the  office.  In  New  York  a  news- 
paper man's  labor  brings  him  only  what  his  salary  will 
purchase. 

Few  editors  will  refuse  to  see  a  man  who  desires 
employment  if  there  are  vacancies  on  their  staffs,  and 
many  make  it  a  rule  to  talk  with  every  applicant, 
even  if  their  forces  are  already  larger  than  need  be. 
Getting  an  audience,  however,  is  not  getting  a  situa- 
tion. The  office  of  a  daily  newspaper  in  a  large  city 
is  visited  every  day  by  three  or  four  men — in  New 
York  the  number  sometimes  goes  as  high  as  ten — who 
wish  work,  so  of  necessity  a  large  majority  of  the  visi- 
tors are  told  that  there  are  no  openings.  So  great  is 
the  likelihood  that  he  will  be  turned  away  from  the 
office  which  he  first  visits,  that  the  man  who  is  about 
to  search  for  employment  will,  if  he  is  wise,  before 
starting  his  quest,  make  a  list  of  the  papers;  placing 
them  in  the  order  in  which  they  appeal  to  him.  Fail- 
ing in  one  office,  he  can  then  go  to  the  one  that  comes 
second  on  his  schedule  without  wasting  time  wonder- 
ing what  he  shall  do  next. 

That  an  applicant  for  a  place  on  the  staff  of  a  big 
newspaper  has  had  no  experience  is  not  an  unsur- 
mountable  obstacle.  Most  editors  prefer  to  engage 
trained  workers  who  have  demonstrated  their  worth, 


Getting  a  Situation  257 

but  some  of  them  choose  to  take  men  of  no  experience 
and  train  them  as  they  think  they  should  be  trained. 
Certain  it  is  that  an  editor  would  rather  employ  a  man 
of  no  experience  than  one  who,  having  spent  some 
months  or  years  in  newspaper  work,  had  only  proved 
that  little  could  be  expected  of  him.  In  offices  where 
beginners  are  not  tolerated  the  ranks  are  kept  filled  by 
men  who  have  served  apprenticeships  in  small  cities. 

While  all  the  year  around  the  newspaper  offices  are 
besieged  by  persons  who  are  in  search  of  employment, 
there  are  two  seasons  at  which  the  number  of  appli- 
cants greatly  increases.  One  of  these  is  the  early  sum- 
mer, which  marks  the  closing  of  colleges  and  high 
schools,  and  the  majority  of  the  applicants  are,  as 
might  be  expected,  graduates  of  different  institutions 
who  have  had  no  experience.  Most  of  those  just  out 
of  college,  having  in  mind  stories  about  the  ridiculous 
self-importance  of  the  newly-fledged  graduates,  are 
less  assertive  than  men  of  their  age  whose  schoolroom 
education  has  not  been  carried  so  far ;  but  a  few  fur- 
nish material  for  editorial  room  laughter  by  making 
it  plain  that  they  feel  themselves  equal  to  any  place 
that  may  be  open. 

A  man  could  not  select  a  worse  time  than  early  sum- 
mer to  apply  for  a  situation  in  a  new^spaper  office,  for 
then  the  dullest  season  of  the  whole  year,  a  period  that 
is  marked  by  a  decrease  in  the  amount  of  news,  and 
fully  as  important,  a  decrease  in  the  amount  of  adver- 
tising, is  at  hand.  Lawmaking  bodies  and  the  higher 
courts  do  not  hold  sessions  during  the  heated  months, 
and  because  the  courts  and  lawmaking  bodies  have 
adjourned,  many  lawyers  and  politicians,  to  whom  the 
reporters  ordinarily  look  for  information  of  many 
kinds  every  day,  betake  themselves  to  places  where 


258  Making  a  Newspaper 

they  cannot  be  easily  reached.  Then,  too,  a  great 
many  other  city  residents  spend  the  summer  out  of 
town,  and  under  normal  conditions,  the  fewer  people 
the  less  news,  and  the  less  the  advertising.  And,  auto- 
matically, at  this  season,  wiien  there  is  less  work  for 
reporters,  and  when  the  receipts  from  advertising  fall 
off,  thus  causing  publishers  to  think  of  lowering  ex- 
penses, the  number  of  newsgatherers  who  report  for 
service  in  the  office  increases,  for  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  lawmaking  bodies  and  courts,  part  of  the 
men  who  report  their  proceedings  are  transferred  into 
the  ranks  of  the  general  workers  and  kept  there  until 
they  are  called  back  to  their  special  fields. 

In  spite  of  all  this  the  men  who  apply  for  places  in 
the  summer  need  not  be  without  hope.  Every  em- 
ployee on  the  big  city  dailies  gets  a  two  weeks'  vacation 
during  the  hot  months,  and  with  a  few  workers  away 
there  is  always  a  possibility  that  an  increase  in  the 
day's  news  will  induce  an  editor  to  employ  a  new  man, 
if  only  to  tide  over  an  emergency.  And  seeing  pos- 
sibilities in  a  man  engaged  temporarily,  most  editors 
will  retain  him  even  if  his  services  will  not  be  of  much 
value  immediately. 

In  the  fall  there  is  another  increase  in  the  number 
of  seekers  after  employment,  because  high  school  and 
college  graduates,  having  enjoyed  their  last  long  vaca- 
tion, are  ready  to  start  to  work.  By  this  time  part  of 
the  men  engaged  earlier  in  the  year,  and  some  of  the 
more  experienced  workers,  have  dropped  by  the  way- 
side, so  with  the  busy  season,  the  winter,  close  at  hand, 
there  is  in  many  offices  room  for  new  material. 

One  not  acquainted  with  newspaper  work  might  be 
inclined  to  think  that  the  time  would  come  when  a 
paper's  staff  would  be  so  arranged  that  there  would  be 


Getting  a  Situation  259 

no  vacancies  and  no  desire  to  make  changes.  This 
state  of  perfection,  it  might  be  said,  is  often  reached 
in  a  bank  or  in  a  mercantile  house.  Where  banks  and 
mercantile  houses  are  concerned  this  may  be  true,  but 
different  conditions  obtain  in  newspaper  offices.  No 
large  paper's  staff  is  ever  so  organized  that  there  is  no 
desire  for,  or  likelihood  of  change.  There  is  a  con- 
stant unrest,  an  unending  moving  about  in  the  news- 
paper business,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
it  will  ever  be  any  different.  In  New  York  during  the 
past  five  years  there  has,  so  men  of  long  experience 
say,  been  more  changing  than  ever  before. 

One  reason  why  a  paper's  staff  does  not  remain  the 
same  for  long  periods  is  that  many  men  abandon  jour- 
nalism after  a  few  years'  service,  having  taken  it  up 
merely  with  the  idea  of  gaining  experience  through 
contact  with  persons  in  different  walks  of  life,  and 
with  no  intention  of  making  it  a  life  work.  No  editor 
will  knowingly  engage  a  man  who  contemplates  doing 
this,  and  there  are  a  few  offices  which  have  room  for 
no  one  who  will  not  sign  a  statement  saying  that  he 
has  nothing  else  than  a  newspaper  career  in  mind. 
Other  reporters  and  editors  give  up  their  work  because, 
coming  in  contact  with  business  men  and  politicians, 
they  have  offered  to  them  places  which  promise  greater 
pecuniary  returns.  Many  others  abandon  journalism 
because,  while  having  no  particular  employment  in 
view,  they  realize  that  possessing  only  ordinary  abil- 
ity they  cannot  hope  to  gain  one  of  the  great  prizes. 
Still  others,  and  in  this  class  are  included  some  of  the 
best  newspaper  workers,  meeting  with  success  as 
writers  of  magazine  articles,  leave  to  devote  them- 
selves exclusively  to  work  of  this  nature. 

In  the  classes  mentioned  are  included  most  of  those 


26o  Making  a  Newspaper 

who,  of  their  own  free  will,  leave  the  ranks  of  tHe 
newspaper  workers.  Together  they  form  a  mere  frac- 
tion of  the  number  who  are  forced  to  turn  to  some- 
thing else.  Some  of  those  who  leave  of  necessity  are 
obliged  to  do  so  on  account  of  ill  health.  Always  there 
are  long  hours  for  both  morning  and  evening  news- 
paper men,  and  those  employed  on  morning  papers 
have  to  do  most  of  their  work  at  night,  which  sooner 
or  later  has  an  ill  effect;  constant  work  by  artificial 
light  hurts  the  eyes,  the  night  air  is  bad  for  even  strong 
lungs,  and  in  a  city  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  undis- 
turbed sleep  in  the  daytime.  Then,  reporters  flocking 
to  accidents  and  fires,  are  exposed  to  dangers  not  en- 
countered by  everyone,  and  eating  at  irregular  hours 
and  in  all  sorts  of  restaurants  is  not  conducive  to  good 
health. 

And  long  hours,  lack  of  sleep,  and  poor  food  hastily 
eaten,  have  for  strong  allies  worry  and  nervous  strain. 
Remembering  the  number  of  persons  applying  for  em- 
ployment at  their  ofBces  every  week,  newspaper  work- 
ers, if  for  no  other  reason,  always  bear  in  mind  that 
their  holds  on  their  places  are  not  very  strong.  Some 
reach  the  point  where  they  do  not  knowingly  allow 
this  to  bother  them,  but  there  is  no  reporter  who  is  not 
aware  that  every  time  he  goes  out  on  an  assignment, 
he  runs  a  risk  of  putting  himself  in  disfavor  with  the 
editor  by  whose  grace  he  keeps  his  place,  and  no  editor 
who  does  not  realize  that  each  article  that  passes 
through  his  hands  may  prove  his  undoing. 

Numbering  more  than  those  workers  voluntarily 
making  a  change  and  those  compelled  to  give  up  by 
ill  health,  are  the  ones  who  are  dismissed  for  general 
inefificiency,  poor  work  on  a  particular  story,  or 
because  of  bad  habits. 


Getting  a  Situation  261 

Once  a  year,  usually  in  the  early  summer,  city  news- 
papers have  a  house-cleaning,  when  all  the  reporters 
who  have  failed  to  prove  their  worth  are  dismissed; 
and  a  few  papers  at  this  time  allow  competent  workers 
to  go  temporarily  for  the  purpose  of  curtailing  ex- 
penses. For  the  most  part  the  workers  who  go  on  the 
occasion  of  a  house-cleaning  are  men  who  were  taken 
on  after  the  preceding  one.  At  least  a  third  of  those 
who  enter  the  reporters'  ranks  drop  out  within  a  year, 
and  of  those  who  survive  the  first  year  a  goodly  pro- 
portion go  before  they  have  served  two  years.  Having 
been  in  an  office  three  years  a  man  is  pretty  safe,  as 
long  as  he  keeps  up  his  general  standard  and  avoids 
a  bad  defeat. 

Not  often  does  a  letter  written  to  an  editor  by  an 
inexperienced  man  who  is  unknown  to  him,  result  in 
the  writer  getting  a  situation  forthwith.  Pleased  with 
the  letter,  the  editor  may  intimate  that  he  would  grant 
an  interview,  but  he  rarely  commits  himself.  The  re- 
porters represent  the  paper  so  far  as  the  general  public 
is  concerned,  and  the  editor  does  not  like  to  run  the 
risk  of  engaging  a  man  who,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  would  not  be  looked  upon  with  favor  either 
in  the  office  or  out  of  it.  Many  editors  will  not  make 
any  other  than  a  perfunctory  reply  to  a  written  appli- 
cation for  employment,  for  with  so  many  men  applying 
in  person  unsuccessfully,  they  do  not  feel  justified  in 
even  hinting  that  a  personal  interview  might  result  in 
the  applicant  getting  a  place.  The  would-be  reporter 
who  does  write  asking  for  a  situation  should  by  all 
means,  if  he  intends  to  be  fair  to  himself  and  to  the 
person  to  whom  he  writes,  give  a  description  of  him- 
self, and  with  it  send  his  photograph.  His  letter 
should,  of  course,  tell  about  his  training  and  his  edu- 


262  Making  a  Newspaper 

cation.  Letters  of  recommendation  written  by  college 
professors  are  read  with  care,  for  the  editor  knows  that 
these  men  are  unlike  some  others  in  that  they  are  gen- 
erally adroit  enough  to  evade  writing  recommenda- 
tions for  persons  they  do  not  wish  to  recommend. 

If  the  editor  is  impressed  by  a  caller,  but  not  enough 
to  lead  him  to  engage  him  offhand,  he  may  tell  him 
to  write  something  and  submit  it.  No  subject  will  be 
mentioned,  because  the  editor  desires  to  learn  not 
alone  how  the  would-be  reporter  can  write,  but  also 
what  ability  he  has  to  see  things  about  which  to  write. 
The  man  who  is  requested  to  submit  an  article  can 
leave  the  office  in  a  pleasant  frame  of  mind,  for  not 
many  are  thus  honored.  If  the  article  that  is  forth- 
coming is  bright  and  entertaining,  and  written  in  good 
English,  the  editor  is  glad  of  it,  for  it  disappoints  him 
to  find  that  he  was  mistaken  when  he  judged  his  visi- 
tor. The  article  need  not  be  a  masterpiece,  and  it  need 
not  be  brilliant.  If  it  is  simply  good  and  shows  that 
the  writer  is  observing  and  can  express  himself  clearly, 
the  probabilities  are  that  there  will  be  an  addition 
made  to  the  paper's  staff. 

After  a  man  who  wishes  to  become  a  reporter  has 
paid  four  or  five  visits  to  the  different  offices  without 
receiving  encouragement,  it  is  time  for  him,  if  he  is 
still  sure  that  he  can  succeed  in  journalism  and  that  all 
that  he  wants  is  a  chance,  to  submit  something  without 
receiving  an  invitation.  In  fact,  if  he  is  absolutely  sure 
that  he  is  a  good  writer,  and  is  willing  to  risk  a  decisive 
action,  he  might  as  well  submit  an  article  at  the  outset, 
and  thus  make  the  editor  acquainted  immediately  with 
his  ability. 

But  originality,  while  it  is  desirable  in  a  solicited 
contribution  is  a  necessity  in  one  not  solicited.    If  pos- 


Getting  a  Situation  263 

sible,  a  subject  should  be  selected  concerning  which 
nothing  has  been  printed.  If  none  of  this  description 
presents  itself,  an  old  one  may  be  taken  and  treated  in 
a  manner  not  before  attempted,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
writer  knows. 

While  he  is  casting  about  for  a  subject,  and  while 
he  is  preparing  his  article,  the  beginner  must  remember 
that  his  work  is  intended  not  for  a  magazine,  but  for 
a  newspaper,  and  that  a  daily  publication  desires  first 
news,  and  after  that  what  closely  approaches  news. 
An  article  that  demands  space  in  a  paper,  such  as  a 
report  of  a  fire  or  an  accident,  is  real  news,  w^hile 
another  that  is  not  news  in  itself,  closely  approaches 
news  when  it  is  timely.  A  story  having  to  do  with  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  fireworks  would  receive  no 
consideration  from  a  newspaper  editor  in  the  winter; 
but  it  might  be  accepted  gratefully  if  offered  to  him  a 
few  weeks  before  the  Fourth  of  July. 

A  story  may  here  be  told  of  the  experience  of  one 
young  man  who  got  a  place  in  New  York  at  a  time 
when  he  had  about  given  up  hope.  While  walking 
along  a  downtown  street  he  came  across  a  crowd 
standing  in  front  of  a  building  in  which  there  was  a 
fire.  Knowing  that  the  regular  reporters  would  soon 
appear,  he  had  no  thought  of  writing  about  the  fire, 
and  was  looking  on  with  the  eyes  of  an  ordinary  spec- 
tator, when  there  was  a  small  explosion  in  the  interior 
of  the  building.  The  firemen  came  pouring  out  shout- 
ing for  everyone  to  run,  and  the  young  man  w^as  turn- 
ing with  others  in  the  crowd  when  there  came  another 
explosion,  that  wTecked  the  building  and  showered 
debris  in  the  streets  around.  Many  of  the  sight-seers 
were  knocked  down — the  youn§^  man  was  sent  tum- 
bling— and  a  panic  followed  'in  which  many  already 


264  Making  a  Newspaper 

disabled  were  trampled  upon.  The  young  man  fled 
with  the  others,  but  he  took  mental  note  of  the  injured 
persons  he  passed,  and  of  the  appearance  of  the  streets 
and  the  terrorized  crowd,  and  never  stopped  moving 
until  he  reached  the  office  of  the  evening  newspaper 
on  which  he  was  most  desirous  of  getting  work.  When 
he  told  of  his  experience  he  was  invited  to  write  about 
it,  and  the  column  article  that  he  wrote  was  worth 
reading.  The  main  story  of  the  fire  and  the  explosion 
he  did  not  attempt — that  he  left  for  the  regular  re- 
porters— but  he  told  how  he  felt  when  he  was  running 
and  how  the  injured,  crying  for  help,  were  left  to  fare 
as  best  they  could.  He  told,  also,  how  men  fought 
one  another  as  they  fled,  and  how  here  and  there  a 
falling  brick  sent  one  headlong.  Before  his  story  ap- 
peared in  the  paper  the  young  man  got  the  place  he  was 
after,  the  managing  editor  having  passed  on  his  work 
while  reading  the  proofs. 

Sometimes  an  editor,  not  having  a  vacancy  in  his 
office,  will  allow  a  man  who  wants  a  situation  to  do 
space  work  for  him.  In  this  case  the  newcomer  visits 
the  office  every  day  at  the  time  the  assignments  are 
given  out,  and  if  there  are  more  assignments  than 
there  are  reporters,  gets  something  to  do.  The  regu- 
lar reporters  get  the  important  assignments,  of  course, 
and  the  extra  space  man  gets  at  most  something  that 
has  little  promise.  V/hat  he  writes  is  paid  for  accord- 
ing to  the  space  it  covers.  In  New  York,  the  extra 
space  man  who  makes  $10  a  week  can  consider  him- 
self lucky.  An  extra  space  man,  however,  is  in  line 
for  regular  employment,  and  his  income  is  more  sure 
than  is  that  of  a  free-lance,  as  a  reporter  who  is  not 
regularly  employed  but  sells  his  information  wherever 
he  can,  is  called.    Because  of  this,  a  free-lance,  finding 


Getting  a  Situation  265 

that  a  certain  publication  prints  his  articles  pretty 
regularly,  will  do  well  to  ask  the  editor  to  allow 
him  to  do  extra  space  work,  and  if  his  request 
is  granted  he  has  reason  to  feel  pleased.  Thereafter 
he  has  a  general  over  him,  and  can  look  forward 
to  the  next  house-cleaning  with  more  than  ordinary 
interest. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  PRIZES  IN  JOURNALISM 

For  any  man  who  possesses  a  good  supply  of  com- 
mon sense,  a  fair  education,  good  health,  and  a  liking 
and  capacity  for  hard  work,  a  newspaper  office  offers 
many  advantages  as  a  place  in  which  to  earn  a  living ; 
a  self-supporting  wage  is  offered  even  at  the  start,  the 
work  is  pleasant,  there  is  an  absence  of  humdrum,  and 
promotion  is  rapid  for  those  who  deserve  it.  In  very 
few  other  places  is  it  harder  for  a  man,  no  matter  how 
able,  energetic,  and  well-qualified  he  is,  to  become 
wealthy.  The  small  and  medium-sized  prizes  in  the 
newspaper  business  are  multitudinous.  The  big  prizes 
are  few.  But  there  is  no  limit  to  the  rewards  which 
are  to  be  gained  through  journalism.  It  leads  to  any- 
thing and  everything.  As  a  means  toward  an  end  it 
cannot  be  surpassed. 

But  journalism,  like  many  other  fields,  is  greenest 
when  viewed  from  a  distance.  Newspaper  workers 
are  notorious  croakers.  Almost  always,  when  a  group 
of  them  get  together  and  time  hangs  heavily  on  their 
hands,  they  begin  to  tell  one  another  their  troubles 
and  wish  they  had  gone  in  for  something  else,  and 
generally  the  most  insistent  wishers  are  those  who 
have  seen  the  longest  service.  Even  the  men  who  have 
pushed  to  the  front  rank  are  frequently  dissatisfied, 
for  having  made  a  way  for  themselves  against  one  set 
of  competitors,  they  feel  that  they  could  have  outdis- 

260 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  267 

tanced  those  engaged  in  other  pursuits  just  as  well 
and  have  won  greater  rewards  than  are  to  be  found  in 
the  newspaper  offices.  Few  of  the  malcontents,  how- 
ever, have  anything  in  particular  in  mind  to  which  they 
would  like  to  transfer  their  activities,  and  commonly 
they  supplement  their  hopes  by  doing  nothing  more 
than  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up.  Losing  his 
place,  the  most  persistent  grumbler  usually  forgets  all 
about  his  desire  to  try  something  else  and  at  once  sets 
about  trying  to  find  new  employment  in  another 
newspaper  office ;  and  of  the  experienced  men  who  do 
of  their  free  will  forsake  newspaper  work,  a  large  pro- 
portion sooner  or  later  drift  back  into  it.  The  fascina- 
tion it  exerts  is  hard  to  shake  off. 

That  newspaper  workers  are  prone  to  grumble  and 
decry  their  occupation  is  undoubtedly  in  part  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  pursuit  of  news  bringing  them  into  daily 
contact  with  men  who  have  won  more  than  ordinary 
standing,  they  are  inclined  to  think  only  of  these,  and 
commiserate  themselves  while  overlooking  the  crowd 
in  which,  for  all  they  know,  there  are  many  who  al- 
though as  well  fitted  to  succeed  as  themselves,  are  far 
worse  off.  Whatever  the  cause,  newspaper  workers 
are  a  dissatisfied  lot.  To  the  young  man  who  asks 
them  whether  they  would  advise  him  to  go  in  for  jour- 
nalism, they  almost  unanimously  shout,  "No,  don't!" 
and  asked  to  give  reasons  for  their  attitude  they  pro- 
ceed to  make  out  what  to  them  appears  to  be  a  pretty 
strong  case.  They  say  that  their  ranks  are  over- 
crowded, and  touching  on  this  point  they  invariably 
compare  themselves  with  members  of  the  professions; 
that  for  them,  experience  does  not  count ;  that  old  age 
destroys  their  usefulness;  that  fame  is  out  of  their 
reach;    that  they  cannot  hope  to  become  newspaper 


268  Makmg  a  Newspaper 

owners;  that  long  service  in  itself  brings  them  nc 
rewards;  that  their  fortunes  do  not  advance  with 
those  of  their  papers;  and  that  beginners  are  propor- 
tionately the  best  paid. 

Having  already  pointed  out  some  of  the  delights  of 
journalism  and  told  how  a  newspaper  is  made,  it  is 
only  right  that  something  should  be  said  about  these 
drawbacks.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  omit  them,  and 
further,  any  man  who  goes  in  for  newspaper  work  is 
sure  to  have  them  called  to  his  attention  anyway, 
before  he  has  seen  more  than  a  few  weeks'  service,  for, 
as  has  been  pointed  out,  they  are  favorite  topics  of 
conversation  among  newspaper  workers.  About  the 
contention  of  overcrowding  in  the  large  cities  the  tes- 
timony is  all  on  one  side.  The  most  optimistic  editor 
who  lives  does  not  deny  that  it  exists;  every  day  his 
office  is  besieged  by  men  in  search  of  employment,  and 
many  of  the  applicants,  he  must  confess,  give  evidence 
that  they  are  capable  workers,  even  if  they  are  not  won- 
ders. And  reporters,  although  in  the  majority,  are  not 
the  only  visitors;  there  is,  among  the  place-hunters, 
a  goodly  number  of  editorial  writers  and  city  editors, 
and  a  fair  sprinkling  of  men  qualified  to  hold  other 
high  places. 

Primarily  the  overcrowding  is,  of  course,  due  to  the 
ease  with  which  newspaper  work  may  be  entered;  it 
is  frequently  the  first  refuge  of  the  young  man  who 
seeks  to  turn  his  general  knowledge  to  account,  and  the 
last  refuge  or  the  tiding-over  resort  of  the  man  who, 
forced  from  his  accustomed  orbit,  has  to  look  for  a 
new  means  of  gaining  a  living.  Secondly,  the  over- 
crowding comes  because  there  is  a  constant  influx  of 
workers  from  the  small  towns,  and  almost  no  move- 
ment in  the  other  direction. 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  269 

Experience  weighs  about  as  lightly  in  a  newspaper 
office  as  it  is  possible  for  it  to  weigh  anywhere.  There 
is  no  requisite  which  years  alone  will  bring,  and  in  all 
except  the  highest  places  age  is  a  hindrance  rather  than 
a  help.  The  newspaper  business  is  one  wherein  young 
men  shine,  and  having  failed  to  fight  their  way  well 
toward  the  front,  the  middle-aged  find  small  demand 
for  their  services.  The  fittest  survive  only  until  they 
are  unfit,  and  sentiment  is  not  allowed  to  interfere  with 
the  process  of  exclusion.  Further,  there  are  in  news- 
paper offices  no  easy  berths  for  men  of  long  service; 
advancement  brings  not  only  heavier  responsibilities 
but  harder  work  and  often  longer  hours  as  well. 

That  fame  and  reputation  are  hard  to  win  in  journal- 
ism is  unquestionable.  It  is  the  almost  universal  rule 
that  newspaper  workers  must  write  anonymously,  and 
this  is  especially  true  of  the  editorial  writers,  for  the 
editorials  are  supposed  to  stand  for  the  paper  and  not 
for  the  men  who  work  for  it.  Editors  who  handle 
news,  aside  from  those  who  have  proprietary  interests 
in  the  newspapers  on  which  they  work,  become  known 
to  the  public  little  more  than  do  the  editorial  writers. 
However  much  respected  and  esteemed  they  are  by 
those  with  whom  they  come  into  close  contact,  their 
reputations  do  not  travel  far.  If  one  doubts  this  he 
has  only  to  undertake  to  name  the  editors-in-chief  or 
the  managing  editors  of  the  papers  in  any  large 
city. 

Would-be  journalists,  when  they  are  told  that  fame 
is  not  often  gained  in  newspaper  offices,  usually  ask 
w^hether  it  can  be  denied  that  men  have  won  glory  as 
war  correspondents.  It  cannot !  But  how  many  men 
have  become  famous  through  reporting  battles  on  land 
or  sea  for  daily  newspapers?     Can  anyone  name  two 


270  Making  a  Newspaper 

men  who  were  war  correspondents  at  the  time  of  the 
Civil  War?  Coming  nearer  to  the  present,  who  were 
the  regularly  employed  newspaper  men  that  won 
renown  reporting  the  battles  of  the  Spanish-American 
War  for  the  daily  journals?  Scores  of  correspondents 
traveled  with  the  American  forces,  and  most  of  them 
performed  their  duties  in  a  manner  that  left  nothing 
to  be  desired.  Perhaps  someone  can  name  four  of  them. 
If  so,  is  the  person  who  can  give  the  four  names  abso- 
lutely sure  that  the  correspondents  attained  fame ;  cer- 
tain that  they  were  not  merely  exploited  for  the  time 
by  a  paper  which  wanted  to  create  the  impression  that 
its  newsgatherers  were  of  higher  caliber  than  those  of 
its  competitors  ?  Whatever  the  reply  is,  let  the  person 
answer  two  more  questions :  Where  are  the  four  cor- 
respondents now?    What  are  they  doing? 

The  newspaper  worker  through  newspaper  work 
alone  cannot  possibly  acquire  enough  to  permit  him 
to  start  a  newspaper  of  his  own  in  a  large  city ;  saving 
until  he  had  $20,000,  he  would  not  be  in  so  good  a 
position  to  embark  as  would  the  salesman  or  the  profes- 
sional man  who  had  only  a  twentieth  part  of  this  sum. 
No  one  would  purchase  a  paper  whose  news  service 
was  poor,  when  the  smallest  coin  in  circulation 
procures  one  which  records  the  news  of  the  whole 
world,  and  without  readers  a  paper  could  attract 
no  advertisers,  for  these  come  only  when  the  readers 
exist.  In  an  established  paper  which  was  making 
money,  the  man  who  had  only  $20,000  would  get  no 
chance  to  invest,  and  into  one  which  was  not  making 
money,  in  view  of  the  heavy  expenses,  he  would  be 
foolish  to  put  his  capital. 

A  newspaper  office  in  a  large  city,  aside  from  the 
pressrooms  and  business  office,  is  one  of  the  few  places 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  271 

where  the  attainment  of  success  does  not  demand  a 
corresponding  increase  in  the  equipment  When  a 
newspaper  starts  in  these  days  it  must,  if  it  is  to  hve, 
have  even  for  the  first  issue  a  full  complement  of 
workers,  and  thus  it  comes  about  that  growth  creates 
no  new  places  to  which  capable  men  can  be  promoted. 
Nor  does  the  attainment  of  success  bring  about  an 
advancement  of  salaries.  The  duties  of  the  editors 
and  reporters  are  the  same  whether  their  paper  has 
one  hundred  readers  or  one  hundred  thousand,  and 
demanding  full  pay  when  a  venture's  future  is  uncer- 
tain, they  have  no  reason  to  ask  for  more  simply 
because  they  find  it  becoming  a  great  money-maker. 

About  the  attractiveness  of  the  monetary  rewards 
of  daily  journalism  each  man  can  decide  for  himself. 
The  capital  prizes  are  usually  underrated  by  reporters 
and  sub-editors;  but  they  are  not  so  large  as  many 
persons  who  are  outside  of  newspaper  offices  are  led 
to  believe ;  nor  are  they  so  numerous.  Most  reporters 
and  sub-editors  are  firmly  convinced  that  no  editor  is 
receiving  over  $15,000  a  year;  a  good  many  of  the 
outsiders  believe  that  at  least  a  half-dozen  editors  are 
receiving  $60,000  a  year  each,  and  that  $25,000  sala- 
ries are  fairly  plentiful.  The  truth  lies  between  the 
two  ideas.  Not  taking  into  account  the  amounts  set 
aside  for  men  who  have  pecuniary  interests  in  the  pub- 
lications to  which  they  devote  their  attention,  the 
greatest  yearly  income  received  by  a  daily  newspaper 
editor  in  the  United  States  can  be  set  down  as  about 
$50,000.  Only  one  prize  of  this  size  exists.  The  next 
highest  amount,  also  received  by  only  one  man,  ap- 
proaches $35,000.  Two  or  three  other  workers  get 
something  like  $20,000  each,  and  there  are  about  a 
half   dozen   more   who   get    in   the   neighborhood   of 


272  Making  a  Newspaper 

$15,000.  Possibly  ten  others  reach  the  $10,000  mark. 
The  total  number  of  those  who  receive  $5,000  a  year 
or  over,  men  who  are  most  competent  to  judge  esti- 
mate at  about  three  hundred.  An  experienced  war 
correspondent  who  has  a  reputation  receives  about 
$100  a  week  and  his  expenses  paid  while  he  is  at  the 
front. 

Newspaper  salaries  are  larger  in  New  York  than 
in  any  other  city  in  the  United  States,  with  the  natural 
result  that  from  all  over  the  country  editors  and  re- 
porters flock  to  New  York  in  search  of  employment. 
Hundreds  make  the  pilgrimage  every  year  and  thou- 
sands more  are  always  contemplating  it;  in  every 
other  city  and  in  nine-tenths  of  the  villages  of  the 
country  there  are  newspaper  men  who  are  saving 
money,  or  fully  intend  to  save  it,  to  make  the  journey. 

Probably  seven-eighths  of  the  newspaper  men  who 
journey  to  New  York  from  other  places  in  search  of 
employment  fail  in  their  quest;  and  to  none  does 
failure  come  harder  than  to  those  from  the  small 
country  towns,  for  somehow  or  other,  the  conviction 
has  become  fixed  in  these  places  that  men  who  have 
spent  several  years  working  on  country  dailies  or 
weeklies  are  in  high  favor  in  the  big  cities,  particularly 
New  York,  and  that  they  need  only  announce  them- 
selves to  be  taken  in  with  open  arms.  In  reality,  the 
country  newspaper  worker  is  not  in  great  demand  in 
New  York  or  any  other  large  city,  and  the  man  whose 
application  for  employment  is  backed  up  by  nothing 
more  than  a  statement  that  he  has  been  trained  on  a 
weekly  publication  or  a  small  town  daily,  stands  almost 
no  show  of  getting  a  situation  on  a  paper  where 
novices  are  not  received.  The  applicants  who  are 
viewed  with  favor  are  those  who  come  from  papers  in 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  273 

the  medium-sized  cities,  places  big  enough  to  keep  three 
or  four  reporters  for  each  paper  busy,  and  yet  not 
large  enough  to  make  necessary  the  department 
system. 

Despite  all  this  the  number  of  men  actively  engaged 
in  newspaper  work  in  New  York  who  were  born  and 
brought  up  elsewhere  is  far  greater  than  is  the  number 
of  those  who  are  natives  of  the  city;  it  occasionally 
happens  that  a  paper  does  not  have  on  its  staff  a  single 
reporter,  copy  reader,  or  editor  who  is  native-born.  But 
this  does  not  prove  in  itself  that  the  small  town  and 
country-bred  men  are  the  more  aggressive  fighters. 
It  is  hard  for  the  city  man  to  get  a  start,  for  inexperi- 
enced men  are  not  received  everywhere,  and  again, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  city  men  are  not  attracted 
by  daily  journalism  quite  as  strongly  as  are  some 
others.  It  must  not  be  understood,  though,  that  all 
the  New  York  newspaper  men  who  are  natives  of  other 
places  were  experienced  when  they  arrived  in  the  city ; 
many  made  their  start  in  New^  York,  having  come  to 
the  city  immediately  after  leaving  college. 

The  inexperienced  man  who  gets  a  place  on  the 
staff  of  a  New  York  daily  is  usually  set  to  work  at 
a  salary  of  $15  a  week.  At  the  end  of  his  first  year 
the  new  reporter  who  has  good  reason  to  believe  that 
he  has  come  up  to  expectations,  may  look  for  an  ad- 
vance of  $5  a  week.  Those  who  do  unusually  well 
get  another  advance  of  the  same  size  at  the  close  of 
their  second  year's  service;  but  the  majority  are  com- 
pelled to  work  for  three  years  before  their  salary  is 
increased  for  the  second  time.  The  experienced  re- 
porter who  comes  from  another  city  is  usually  started 
at  $20  or  $25  a  week,  and  advanced  as  soon  as  he 
proves  deserving.     Workers  who  come  to  the  city  by 


274  Making  a  Newspaper 

request,  of  course,  make  special  arrangements  regard- 
ing pay. 

The  incomes  of  morning  newspaper  men  in  New 
York,  as  elsewhere,  average  higher  than  do  those  of 
workers  on  the  afternoon  publications.  Few  experi- 
enced morning  paper  reporters  receive  less  than  $25 
a  week,  and  $35  is  common ;  while  the  long  service 
men  who  are  paid  at  space  rates  run  far  over  this 
amount.  A  good  space  man  will  average  $60  a  week, 
and  there  are  a  few  stars  who  have  weekly  guarantees 
of  $75.  They  receive  this  much  as  a  minimum,  and 
in  particularly  good  weeks  will  make  $90  or  $100. 
The  highest  space  rate  is  $8  a  column,  and  the  lowest 
$5 ;  but  occasionally  double  rates  are  allowed  for  beats 
or  particularly  well-wTitten  stories.  Only  the  very 
best  space  men  work  under  guarantees.  The  others 
are  paid  only  for  such  of  their  stories  as  appear  in 
print,  or  for  the  time  they  spend  in  seeking  news ;  for 
working  several  hours  on  a  story  and  getting  nothing, 
or  material  for  a  bare  paragraph,  they  are  permitted 
to  charge  for  their  time  at  the  rate  of  fifty  cents  an 
hour.  For  the  time  they  spend  in  the  office  waiting 
for  assignments  they  receive  nothing.  It  is  possible, 
though,  as  the  minimum  pay  for  an  article  bearing 
a  heading  is  $1,  be  it  only  five  or  six  lines  long,  for  a 
reporter  to  receive  anywhere  from  $10  to  $20  for 
stories  that  together  would  fill  only  a  column.  Every 
good  space  man  depends  upon  the  Sunday  supplements 
to  help  him  to  keep  up  his  average. 

There  are  at  present  no  space  writers  regularly  em- 
ployed on  the  New  York  evening  papers.  Salaries 
only  are  paid,  and  because  of  this  many  reporters  look 
back  with  regret  to  the  days  when  paid  according  to 
their  output  they  received  half  as  much  again  as  they 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  275 

now  do.  Employed  on  the  evening  papers  there  are 
plenty  of  good  reporters  whose  salary  is  $30  a  week, 
and  many  capable  of  handling  any  story  that  comes 
their  way  who  get  only  $25.  Forty  dollars  is  consid- 
ered generous  pay.  The  few  men  who  get  $45  or  more 
are  those  who  cannot  easily  be  replaced,  men  who,  hav- 
ing had  the  opportunity  to  make  a  specialty  of  financial, 
legal,  political,  or  other  reporting  of  like  importance, 
can  get  news  which  would  escape  other  reporters  not 
accustomed  to  their  work.  Fifty  dollars  is  about  the 
limit  for  afternoon  paper  reporters. 

Among  the  best  paid  workers  are  those  who  rewrite 
stories  telephoned  in  by  the  reporters  or  delivered  by 
the  newsgathering  concerns.  Most  of  these  men  em- 
ployed on  the  afternoon  papers  receive  $45  a  week, 
while  a  few  get  as  high  as  $65.  Reporters  who  do 
office  writing  for  the  morning  papers  usually  make 
about  $45  a  week,  with  an  occasional  man  making 
$60.  Pay  for  department  reporters  averages  less 
than  that  of  general  workers,  not  often  passing  the 
$30  mark.  Usual  pay  for  copy  readers  on  evening 
papers  is  $35  a  week,  although  in  some  offices  the  uni- 
form salary  is  $40.  Morning  paper  copy  readers  al- 
most always  receive  $40,  and  the  energetic  ones  in- 
crease this  amount  by  $10  or  $20  by  contributing  to 
their  Sunday  supplements. 

In  theory,  at  least,  a  copy  reader  is  a  grade  higher 
than  a  reporter,  but  not  all  reporters  are  anxious  to 
be  made  copy  readers.  Instead,  a  great  many  of  the 
best  newsgatherers  take  pains  to  create  the  impression 
in  their  offices  that  as  copy  readers  they  would  cut 
sorry  figures.  Making  as  much  or  more  money  than 
copy  readers,  and  having  outdoor  work  with  a  good 
bit  of  freedom,  they  do  not  elect  to  tie  themselves  down 


276  Making  a  Newspaper 

merely  for  the  privilege  of  placing  themselves  in 
direct  line  for  promotion.  The  reporter  who  has  of- 
fered to  him  a  place  at  the  copy  desk  has  reached  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  On  the  side  of  the  reporter  the 
good  points  are  outdoor  life,  frequent  contact  with 
men  of  affairs  with  the  consequent  chance  to  get  into 
business  or  politics,  and  freedom  from  responsibility 
for  other  men's  mistakes.  On  the  side  of  the  copy 
reader  are  exemption  from  the  danger  of  defeat  while 
seeking  news,  a  little  authority,  fixed  hours,  and  the 
prospect  of  promotion  to  an  editorship.  Frequently 
reporters  are  promoted  over  the  heads  of  copy  readers, 
but  not  unless  they  can  read  copy  as  well  as  gather 
news,  and  in  addition  possess  desirable  qualities  or 
accomplishments  which  the  available  copy  readers 
lack.  It  is  a  common  saying  among  newspaper  men 
that  the  best  reporters  often  make  the  poorest  editors, 
but  this  is  only  expressing  in  another  way  the  evident 
truth  that  because  a  man  is  a  good  worker  himself  it 
does  not  follow  necessarily  that  he  can  direct  others. 
The  man  who  does  give  up  newsgathering  for  copy 
reading  in  a  sense  renews  his  allegiance  to  journalism, 
signifies  that  he  expects  to  stand  or  fall  by  what  he 
accomplishes  in  it,  and  that  he  has  no  exterior  am- 
bitions. 

On  morning  papers  in  New  York  editors-in-chief  and 
managing  editors  ordinarily  receive  from  $10,000  to 
$  1 5 ,000  a  year.  City  editors'  salaries  range  from  $4,000 
to  $7,500,  while  telegraph  editors  receive  from  $2,000  to 
$3,000.  Editorial  writers  average  $5,000,  but  there 
are  a  few  men  of  long  service  and  extraordinary  ability 
who  pass  the  $10,000  mark.  Night  city  editors  earn 
about  $4,000  a  year.  On  evening  papers  the  editors-in- 
chief  and  managing  editors  get  in  the  neighborhood  of 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  277 

$7,500;  city  editors  from  $3,000  to  twice  this  amount, 
and  telegraph  editors  from  $1,500  to  $2,500;  while 
salaries  of  editorial  writers  range  between  $2,500  and 
$5,000.  For  a  dramatic  critic  on  either  a  morning  or 
an  evening  paper  $3,000  is  good  pay,  while  art  critics 
and  book  reviewers  without  reputations  earn  about 
$2,000.  Papers  which  make  a  specialty  of  financial 
news  pay  the  editor  who  looks  after  its  collection  and 
preparation  for  publication,  anywhere  from  $2,500 
to  $6,500  a  year.  An  exchange  editor's  salary  ranges 
from  $1,500  to  $2,500  a  year,  depending  upon  the 
financial  condition  and  the  importance  of  his  paper, 
and  in  his  class  are  the  majority  of  the  special  depart- 
ment editors.  The  sporting  editor,  though,  usually 
gets  more  than  do  other  department  heads.  The  pay 
of  a  Sunday  editor  is  about  $3,000  a  year,  unless  he  is 
one  of  the  two  or  three  men  who  have  charge  of  the 
supplements  from  beginning  to  end,  and  are  not  under 
the  supervision  of  a  managing  editor,  in  which  case 
he  may  get  $5,000.  Illustrators  and  cartoonists  are 
on  the  average  better  paid  than  are  writers.  A  fairly 
good  illustrator  will,  if  he  works  for  a  salary,  get  $40 
a  week,  and  a  first-class  man  working  on  space  will 
make  almost  twice  this  amount.  A  few  of  the  leading 
cartoonists  receive  salaries  which  do  not  suffer  much 
when  compared  with  those  paid  the  managing  editors 
of  their  papers.  The  photographers  who  hunt  news 
with  cameras  are,  considering  the  obstacles  they  have 
to  overcome  and  the  risks  they  run,  poorly  recom- 
pensed. Reporters  treading  on  forbidden  ground  try 
to  look  anything  else  than  newsgatherers ;  the  photog- 
raphers are  expected  to  look  just  as  innocent  and  go 
just  as  far  despite  their  tell-tale  apparatus.  Again, 
reporters,  for  policy's  sake,  frequently  view  the  per- 


278  Making  a  Newspaper 

sons  about  whom  they  are  collecting  information  from 
across  the  street,  and  even  then  do  it  unostentatiously. 
The  photographers  must  throw  discretion  to  the 
winds,  and  by  their  boldness  defy  the  game.  When, 
now  and  then,  a  victim  turns,  smashes  a  camera 
and  threatens  to  chastise  the  man  who  operates  it,  the 
hunter,  now  turned  hunted,  is  supposed  to  effect  a  com- 
promise and  somehow  or  other  return  to  the  office 
bearing  in  triumph  the  picture  he  set  out  to  get. 
Thirty-five  dollars  a  week  is  good  pay  for  a  photog- 
rapher. 

In  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  and  San  Francisco,  reporters  get  from  $600  to 
$2,500;  copy  readers  from  $1,200  to  $2,000;  editorial 
writers,  from  $2,000  to  $5,000;  and  city  editors,  from 
$2,000  to  $5,000.  For  managing  editors  and  editors- 
in-chief,  the  maximum  is  about  $10,000.  In  other 
cities  which  have  populations  in  excess  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand,  pay  runs  about  as  follows:  editor-in- 
chief  or  managing  editor,  $4,000;  editorial  writer, 
$1,800  to  $2,000;  city  editor,  $1,500  to  $2,500;  copy 
readers  and  reporters,  $600  to  $2,000. 

In  cities  which  have  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  over  twenty-five  thousand,  there  is 
not  even  the  roughly  fixed  standard  of  wages  that 
exists  in  larger  cities,  and  a  newspaper  man's  salary 
depends  at  least  as  much  on  the  ability  of  his  paper  to 
pay  as  it  does  on  his  own  work.  Commonly,  the  re- 
cruits come  from  the  local  high  schools,  each  of  which 
every  year  turns  out  several  young  men  who,  having 
no  career  mapped  out,  are  glad  to  become  reporters  at 
$5  a  week.  Not  many  newspaper  workers  in  these 
small  cities  make  $1,500  a  year;  the  one  who  receives 
$2,000  is  a  rare  exception;  $12  a  week  is  fair  pay  for 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  279 

a  good  reporter,  and  only  the  leaders  get  as  much 
as  $18. 

For  the  services  of  a  woman  in  a  newspaper  office 
there  is  not  much  demand ;  and  in  the  opinion  of  most 
men  who  are  engaged  in  newspaper  work,  a  woman  is 
entirely  out  of  place  in  the  reporters'  room.  The  men 
are  not  of  this  mind  because  they  object  to  a  woman 
competing  with  them  or  because  they  imagine  that  a 
woman  has  not  as  good  a  right  as  a  man  to  earn  a  liv- 
ing, but  rather  because  they  are  convinced  that  report- 
ing is  not  woman's  work.  They  do  not  like  to  see  a 
woman  tramping  around  day  and  night,  rain  or  shine, 
and  they  do  not  like  to  think  of  the  places  she  has  to 
visit,  and  the  unseemly  errands  she  has  to  perform.  To 
state  the  plain  truth,  a  woman  never  gets  a  place  in 
the  general  newsroom  because  she  is  a  reporter,  but 
only  because  she  is  a  woman.  Once  employed,  she  is 
looked  upon  as  a  kind  of  strange  bird  which  is  to  be  de- 
tailed on  strange  assignments,  and  everything  she 
WTites  is  labeled  directly  or  indirectly  "By  Our 
Woman  Reporter."  It  is  not  enough  for  her  to  write 
a  plain  statement  of  fact  at  any  time;  always  her 
stories  must  display  their  origin.  The  woman  reporter 
w^hose  name  goes  down  on  the  city  editor's  schedule 
as  do  the  names  of  the  men — first  in  first  out — does  not 
exist. 

To  any  woman  who  thinks  that  she  wants  to  become 
a  general  newsgatherer,  the  following  incident  is 
respectfully  submitted.  A  year  or  so  ago,  in  a  city 
which  need  not  be  named,  there  was  brought  to  the 
notice  of  the  police  a  murder  which  had  connected  with 
it  all  the  fittings  of  a  first-class  mystery.  A  young  man 
and  a  young  woman  late  at  night  had  gone  to  a  hotel 
aind  procured  a  room ;   the  next  morning  the  man  was 


28o  Making  a  Newspaper 

found  dead  in  the  room  with  a  bullet-hole  in  his  head, 
while  the  young  woman  was  missing.  For  a  few 
hours  the  police  were  baffled;  then  following  the  few 
clews  provided  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  cer- 
tain woman  was  the  murderer.  But  because  their 
evidence  was  insufficient,  they  refrained  from  making 
an  arrest.  While  they  were  marking  time,  the  day  for 
the  young  man's  funeral  came,  and  then  it  became 
known  that  the  suspected  woman,  who  was  conducting 
herself  as  if  she  were  unaware  that  suspicion  was  at- 
tached to  her,  was  to  follow  the  body  to  the  grave.  On 
the  morning  of  this  day,  an  editor  summoned  a  woman 
reporter,  and  when  she  appeared  said  to  her:  "I 
believe  that  this  woman  is  guilty,  and  I  want  you  to 
get  a  confession."  Then  he  delivered  orders  as  a  re- 
sult of  which  the  woman  reporter  dressed  herself  in 
deep  black,  went  to  the  funeral,  got  into  the  carriage 
that  carried  the  suspect,  and  posing  as  a  mourner,  rode 
with  her  to  the  cemeter}^  As  it  turned  out  nothing 
came  of  the  ride,  for  the  suspected  woman  kept  silent, 
but  it  gave  the  men  reporters  who  discovered  the  ruse 
something  to  talk  about  in  private.  They  all  wondered 
what  the  woman  reporter  talked  about,  and  what  she 
thought  during  the  ride. 

When  it  comes  to  special  work  there  is  room  for 
women  in  newspaper  offices,  although  the  places  are 
few.  The  novelty  of  the  woman  journalist  has  worn 
off,  and  even  the  largest  papers  now  employ  only  two 
or  three  regularly.  A  woman  can  collect  society  news 
better  than  can  a  man,  she  can  handle  the  fashions  and 
the  recipes  better,  she  can  compete  on  even  terms  with 
him  as  literary  editor,  and  she  alone  can  successfully 
conduct  the  woman's  page  or  the  woman's  column.  But 
it  is  not  every  woman  who  can  do  these  things.     It  is 


The  Prizes  in  Journalism  281 

not  enougli  that  a  woman  need  the  money  and  that  she 
be  wilHng.  She  must  have  a  fertile  mind,  she  must  be 
observant,  and  she  must  be  able  to  write  entertain- 
ingly. Her  material,  too,  she  must  procure  herself,  and 
she  must  fill  the  space  allotted  to  her  without  fail.  To 
write  a  column  of  popular  topics  every  day  is  an  exceed- 
ingly hard  thing  to  do,  and  it  certainly  must  be  doubly 
hard  when  the  subjects  must  all  be  restricted  to  the 
feminine.  In  a  newspaper  office  the  woman  who  con- 
ducts a  department  or  a  page  has  the  respect  and  good 
will  of  every  one,  and  the  space-paid  reporters  regard 
her  with  admiration  and  almost  with  envy.  Possessing 
her  skill,  they  tell  themselves  they  would  become  rich. 
The  salaries  paid  to  woman  journalists  are  not  as  large 
as  they  are  generally  supposed  to  be ;  worse  than  this, 
they  are  smaller  than  they  ought  to  be.  The  women 
who  get  $40  a  week  are  as  rare  as  comets,  and  the  ones 
who  get  $30  are  few.  Twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars 
is  good  pay  in  the  largest  cities,  and  outside  of  the  half- 
dozen  leading  cities,  $18  is  about  the  limit. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
WITH  THE  PRINTERS 

While  it  is  a  common  custom  for  city  news- 
paper men,  while  talking  about  the  making  of  a  paper, 
to  give  the  impression  that  a  story  is  as  good  as  in 
print  the  moment  it  leaves  the  editorial  rooms,  or  that 
it  has  at  least  reached  the  stage  where  it  can  cause  no 
more  worry,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  assume  that  the 
mechanical  department  is  nothing  more  than  a  ma- 
chine which,  as  long  as  it  is  supplied  with  copy,  can  do 
nothing  else  than  turn  out  printed  papers.  What 
the  newspaper  men,  who  close  their  talks  on  newspaper 
making  by  saying,  "And  from  here  the  stories  go  to 
the  printers,"  actually  mean,  whether  they  realize  it  or 
not,  is  that  the  mechanical  workers  are  a  uniformly 
efficient  body  of  men  who  can  be  depended  upon  to 
carry  out  the  tasks  assigned  to  them  in  a  highly 
praiseworthy  manner,  and  with  the  greatest  possible 
speed.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  true  wonder- 
workings  of  modern  daily  journalism  are  performed 
in  the  mechanical  department. 

There  are  four  main  sub-divisions  in  this,  the  last 
station  through  which  a  newspaper  passes  on  its  way 
to  the  readers,  and  every  newspaper  worker  should 
take  enough  interest  in  his  calling  to  learn  something 
about  each  one.  The  business  manager  and  the  higher 
editors  invariably  do  take  the  trouble  to  acquire  a  fair 
working  knowledge  of  them,  and  because  of  this  they 

?.82 


With  the  Printers  283 

are  always  able  to  ascertain  where  the  fault  lies  when 
the  paper  is  slow  in  coming  from  the  presses,  without 
having  to  listen  to  bewildering  explanations.  The 
city  editor  and  the  copy  readers  have  to  learn  some- 
thing about  at  least  one  phase  of  the  mechanical  work 
to  avoid  setting  impossible  tasks  for  the  printers,  and 
the  reporters  have  to  acquire  the  same  knowledge  if 
they  are  to  guard  against  having  occasional  stories 
torn  apart  and  reconstructed  for  physical  reasons 
alone. 

First  in  the  mechanical  department  come  the  com- 
positors, who  reproduce  in  type  the  articles  prepared 
by  the  editors  and  reporters;  next  are  the  photo- 
engravers,  who  prepare  the  plates  from  w^hich  'pic- 
tures are  printed;  then  come  the  stereotypers,  who 
from  the  pages  of  type  make  duplicate  stereotype 
plates;  and  last  are  the  pressmen,  wdio  operate  and 
keep  in  repair  the  exceedingly  complicated  printing 
machines.  Since  the  photo-engravers  are  employed 
only  where  pictures  are  printed,  and  are  therefore  not 
indispensable,  it  is  just  as  well  in  undertaking  to  ex- 
plain the  actual  making  of  a  newspaper  to  take  up 
their  work  first  and  dispose  of  it  before  passing 
on  to  that  performed  by  the  men  commonly  included 
in  the  general  term  ''printers." 

There  are  two  kinds  of  pictures  printed — line  draw- 
ings made  from  pen  and  ink  sketches,  and  half-tones, 
which  are  reproductions  of  photographs — and  prepar- 
ing plates  for  either,  the  photo-engraver  proceeds  in  the 
same  manner.  The  picture  which  is  to  be  printed  is  at 
the  start  tacked  on  a  board  and,  under  the  glare  of  an 
electric  arc  light,  photographed.  Then  the  film-bear- 
ing plate  is  taken  from  the  camera  and  developed  in 
the    usual    way,    after    which    the    film,    after    being 


284  Making  a  Newspaper 

toughened  by  applications  of  chemicals,  is  stripped 
from  the  glass,  reversed,  and  deposited  on  another  piece 
of  glass,  heavy  and  clear.  This  second  piece  of  glass  is 
now  placed  in  a  printing-frame  with  its  film  side 
tightly  pressed  against  a  polished  plate  of  zinc,  the 
face  of  which  has  been  sensitized.  An  exposure  of  a 
few  minutes  to  electric  light  prints  the  picture  on  the 
zinc,  which  is,  after  having  been  taken  from  the  frame, 
rolled  with  ink,  and  then  subjected  to  a  bath  which 
removes  most  of  the  coating,  leaving  only  the  repro- 
duction of  the  picture  in  sticky  lines.  Then  the  plate, 
after  drying,  is  covered  with  a  chemical  known  as 
dragon's  blood,  which,  adhering  only  to  the  sticky 
lines,  forms  a  covering  for  them  when  it  has  been 
heated  and  allowed  to  cool.  To  complete  the  process, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  immerse  the  plate  in  a  bath  of 
nitric  acid,  which  etches  or  bites  the  zinc  away  where 
it  is  exposed. 

Coming  from  the  acid,  a  photo-engraving  can  be 
sent  to  the  make-up  men  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
mounted  on  a  block  and  made  ''type  high."  But 
a  line  drawing  plate  requires  a  little  more  atten- 
tion. Before  it  is  ready  to  be  placed  on  a  block  it  must 
be  gone  over  by  the  routers,  who  cut  off  rough  edges 
and,  with  rapidly  driven  burrs,  grind  away  the  zinc 
where  it  has  been  eaten  by  the  acid  until  the  drawing 
stands  out  in  bold  relief.  If  everything  moves 
smoothly,  a  half-tone  plate  is  made  from  a  finished 
photograph  or  drawing,  and  mounted  in  from  thirty 
to  thirty-five  minutes. 

The  compositors,  once  commonly  known  as  type- 
setters and  now  usually  called  machine  operators,  are 
generally  quartered  in  the  top  floor  of  the  newspaper 
building;   the  reasons  for  this  are  that  they  can  work 


With  the  Printers  285 

best  when  they  have  good  hght,  and  that  the  machines 
they  operate  throw  off  noxious  fumes  which  make 
good  ventilation  necessary.  Until  comparatively  re- 
cent years  the  compositors,  standing  in  front  of  cases 
divided  into  compartments,  picked  up  the  lead  types 
one  at  a  time  and,  laying  them  in  receptacles  called 
sticks,  spelled  out  the  words  indicated  in  the  copy 
provided.  But  now  in  the  large  establishments  little 
real  typesetting,  if  advertisements  and  headings  are 
excepted,  is  done,  the  handworkers  having  made  way 
for  machines,  each  of  which  operated  by  a  skilled  man 
will,  in  a  given  time,  do  four  or  five  times  as  much 
work  as  an  average  old-style  compositor.  In  general 
use  at  the  present  time  there  are  three  kinds  of  these 
machines.  One,  now  rarely  seen,  sets  types  somewhat 
as  did  the  hand  compositors,  magazines  or  reservoirs, 
however,  taking  the  place  of  cases;  another  molds 
types  from  molten  metal;  while  the  third,  the  one 
most  widely  employed,  also  using  molten  metal, 
turns  out  reading  matter  in  solid  lines,  hence  the  name 
Linotype.  All  the  machines  have  keyboards  and 
are  operated  much  as  are  typewriters.  Where  the 
machines  which  set  actual  types  are  installed,  there  is 
a  second  piece  of  apparatus  employed  to  distribute 
the  types  after  they  have  been  used.  The  machine 
w^hich  makes  types  is  in  two  sections;  one  section, 
which  carries  the  keyboard,  perforates  a  strip  of  paper, 
while  the  second,  absorbing  the  paper  and  guided  by 
the  perforations,  completes  the  work.  In  the  Linotype 
the  brass  molds,  or  matrices,  after  permitting  the  mold- 
ing of  a  line,  are  automatically  returned  to  the  reser- 
voirs. In  both  the  machines  which  do  molding,  the 
product  after  use  goes  back  to  the  melting  pot.  The 
equipment  of  a  large  newspaper  includes  forty  or  fifty 


2  86  Making  a  Newspaper 

composing  machines,  and  in  the  composing  room 
about  one  hundred  men,  including  perhaps  twenty-five 
"ad"  hands — men  who  set  advertisements — are  fre- 
quently employed.  All  are  under  the  care  of  a  foreman 
who  is  held  responsible  for  the  character  of  the  work 
performed,  and  who  does  any  disciplining  found  neces- 
sary. 

Perhaps  as  good  a  way  as  any  to  explain  how  a 
paper  is  printed  is  to  follow  a  story  or  two  from  the 
time  they  are  written  until  they  appear  in  the  paper. 
For  the  purpose  of  illustration,  it  may  be  supposed 
that  the  day  is  just  starting  in  the  office  of  an  evening 
publication  which  is  not  in  the  habit  of  issuing  day- 
break editions,  and  that  two  reporters  are  at  work, 
one  writing  about  a  collision,  the  other  about  a  fire. 
After  editing  the  opening  pages  of  the  two  stories,  and 
here  it  must  be  pointed  out  once  more  that  reporters 
usually  send  their  copy  to  the  city  editor  a  page  or  two 
at  a  time,  the  copy  reader  summons  an  office  boy  who, 
placing  the  pages  in  a  miniature  elevator  or  pneumatic 
tube,  starts  them  off  for  the  composing  room.  Reach- 
ing there,  they  stop,  as  does  all  material  that  is  to  be 
printed,  at  the  desk  of  the  copy  cutter,  an  individual 
W'ho,  although  he  is  rarely  heard  of  outside  of  the  room 
where  he  works,  performs  a  task  that  calls  for  an 
active  brain,  nimble  fingers,  and  a  particularly  cool 
head. 

The  main  purpose  of  the  copy  cutter's  employment 
is  to  save  time,  and  this  calls  for  the  explanation  that 
fast  as  a  composing  machine  is,  it  is  at  times  not  fast 
enough.  A  single  machine  to  turn  out  a  column  of 
type  requires  about  an  hour,  no  matter  how  skillful 
the  operator,  and  the  editors  could  never  afford  to 
wait  this  long  for  a  column  story  which  the  entire  city 


With  the  Printers  287 

was  anxious  to  read.  The  copy  cutter  gets  around 
the  difficulty  by  cutting  each  long  story  that  reaches 
the  composing  room  into  pieces  and  distributing  them, 
thus  permitting  a  number  of  men  to  work  on  the  story 
at  one  time.  It  is  not  a  hard  thing  to  distribute  the 
pieces  of  manuscript,  anyone  could  do  this;  but  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  plan,  while  effecting  the  distri- 
bution so  that  the  pieces  of  each  story,  after  they  are 
turned  into  type,  can  be  assembled  quickly  and  accu- 
rately. The  size  of  the  takes  that  go  to  the  com- 
positors depends  always  upon  the  nearness  of  the  time 
for  issuing  the  next  edition.  If  there  is  no  cause  for 
hurry,  a  man  commonly  gets  enough  material  to  make 
four  or  five  inches  of  type.  But  if,  at  the  last  moment, 
the  editors  contribute  an  important  story  which  is 
marked  ''Rush,"  the  copy  cutter  divides  more  closely 
and  gives  each  man  only  enough  to  make  three  or  four 
lines.  The  copy  cutter,  as  a  rule,  pastes  the  pages  that 
come  to  him  together  and  divides  so  as  to  make  each 
take  include  a  paragraph,  which  relieves  him  of  the 
necessity  of  making  a  lot  of  explanatory  markings; 
and  it  is  because  of  this  that  matter  intended  for  pub- 
lication must  not  be  written  on  both  sides  of  the  paper. 
Of  course,  the  copy  cutter  adheres  to  a  system.  He 
could  not  hope  to  remember  where  all  the  pieces  of  a 
story  went,  nor  could  he  hope  to  accomplish  much  by 
running  around  the  office  at  intervals,  taking  a  look  at 
each  operator's  product  and  issuing  verbal  instructions. 
There  are  a  number  of  different  systems  employed, 
but  the  one  in  most  common  use  is  based  on  a  chart 
ruled  into  two-inch  lettered  squares.  The  top  square 
of  each  column  is  lettered  A,  the  next  B,  and  so  on. 
It  may  here  be  supposed,  to  return  to  the  description 
undertaken,   that   the  copy  cutter,   having  ruled   and 


288  Making  a  Newspaper 

lettered  his  chart  or  a  big  sheet  of  paper,  has  just 
fastened  it  on  the  flat  top  of  his  desk,  when  a  warning 
bell  rings  and  the  two  stories  already  spoken  of  stop 
at  his  elbow.  In  a  moment,  he  has  the  roll  of  copy 
unfolded,  and  is  inspecting  the  pages.  Quickly  he 
ascertains  through  the  catch  lines  that  there  are 
two  stories,  and  glances  at  the  highest  numbered 
pages  tell  him  that  neither  one  is  complete.  First 
he  takes  the  three  pages  of  the  ''Collide"  story,  which 
are  written  in  lead  pencil  with  the  lines  far  apart,  and 
pastes  them  together  in  order.  Then,  with  a  snip  of 
his  shears,  he  divides  the  sheet  thus  made  into  two 
pieces.  After  placing  on  the  first  piece  at  the  top,  with 
a  heavy  crayon  pencil,  the  marking  lA,  and  on  the 
second  in  like  manner  2A,  he  lays  them  on  the  edge  of 
his  desk,  whence  they  are  hurried  to  two  operators, 
turns  to  his  chart  and  in  the  square  heading  the  first 
column  writes  over  the  A  he  finds  there  the  word 
''Collide,"  and  after  the  letter  the  figure  2  followed 
by  a  dash,  the  latter  to  indicate  that  there  is  "more  to 
come."  This  done,  the  copy  cutter  attacks  the  second 
story,  four  typewritten  pages.  With  the  aid  of  his 
paste-brush  he  joins  them,  and  a  moment  later,  under 
his  shears,  the  sheet  falls  into  six  pieces,  which  are 
soon  numbered  as  were  the  others,  only  now  the  letter 
B  is  used.  Placing  these  takes  where  he  did  the 
others,  the  copy  cutter  a  second  time  turns  to  his  chart, 
and  in  the  second  square  of  the  first  column  over  the 
B  writes  "Fire,"  and  after  the  letter  makes  the  mark- 
ing 6 — . 

At  this  juncture,  it  may  be  supposed,  a  fresh  lot  of 
copy  arrives  from  the  editorial  rooms,  among  it  the 
five  pages  that  bring  the  "Collide"  story  to  an  end. 
These,  pasted  and  divided,  become  3A,  4A,  and  5A, 


With  the  Printers  289 

and  with  them  started  toward  the  machines  the  copy 
cutter  in  the  A  square  already  marked  writes  5  +, 
thus  making  the  square  carry  the  complete  marking 
Collide  A  2 — 5+.  The  plus  mark  signifies  that  the 
story  is  "closed"  and  the  marking  entire  says  that  the 
''Collide"  story  reached  the  composing  room  in  two 
installments;  that  it  was  divided  among  five  opera- 
tors ;  and  that  it  is  complete.  If  now,  two  more  short 
pages  which  end  the  'Tire"  report  reach  him,  the  copy 
cu1:ter  has  only  to  join  them,  mark  the  sheet  7B  and 
add  7  +  to  his  B  square  to  get  this  story,  too,  pretty 
well  off  his  hands.  All  that  remains  for  him  to  do 
is  to  pick  up  the  two  slips  of  paper,  write  on  one  A5 
and  on  the  other  By,  and  send  them  to  the  men  who 
receive  the  sections  of  type  from  the  machines,  as  a 
notification  that  two  stories  are  coming,  one  in  five 
sections,  the  other  in  seven. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  explanation,  it  might 
appear  as  if  the  copy  cutter  did  not  have  such 
a  hard  time  after  all,  but  to  prove  that  he  must 
remain  alert  and  cool-headed,  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  say  anything  more  than  that  in  practice 
long  before  he  is  through  with  A  and  B,  he  is  strug- 
gling with  C,  D,  E,  F,  and  G,  and  maybe  with  even 
more  stories,  all  reaching  him  piecemeal.  The  copy 
cutter  begins  to  use  the  second  column  of  his  chart 
after  the  first  is  filled,  but  by  this  time  the  early  stories 
are  out  of  the  way,  so  there  is  no  danger  of  confusion. 

The  bankmen,  who  assemble  the  sections  of  type 
received  from  the  machines,  depend  for  guidance  on 
the  slips  sent  to  them  by  the  copy  cutter;  they  never 
read  the  type,  and  if  misleading  instructions  are  given 
them,  trouble  is  sure  to  follow.  Their  workbench  is 
the    bank,    a    long    waist-high    counter,    the    top    of 


290  Making  a  Newspaper 

which  slopes  toward  them  as  they  stand  in  front  of 
it.  Along  the  top,  from  end  to  end,  six  or  seven 
inches  apart,  run  narrow  strips  of  w^ood  about  a  half 
inch  high,  and  resting  against  these  strips  and  by  them 
prevented  from  sliding  off  to  the  floor,  are  numerous 
brass  trays,  three  and  a  half  to  four  inches  wide,  and 
of  all  lengths  up  to  a  column.  In  these  trays,  called 
galleys,  which  are  flat-bottomed  and  inclosed  on  both 
sides  and  one  end  by  an  edge  a  trifle  over  a  half  inch 
high,  are  received  the  sections  of  type  as  they  are  car- 
ried from  the  com.posing  machines.  To  follow  the 
work  of  a  bankman,  let  it  be  supposed  that  he  has  just 
received  from  the  copy  cutter  the  slip  marked  5A. 
Picking  up  a  medium-sized  galley,  for  the  figure  5 
tells  him  that  the  story  is  not  a  long  one,  he  goes  over 
it  carefully  with  a  damp  sponge  to  remove  all  dirt  or 
dust  which,  getting  under  the  base  of  the  type,  might 
throw  some  of  it  "off  its  feet,"  and  then  returns  it  to 
the  bank,  resting  it  lengthwise  against  one  of  the 
wooden  strips.  With  a  piece  of  chalk  he  now  writes 
boldly  near  the  galley's  open  end,  on  its  bottom,  5A, 
and  then  up  near  the  closed  end,  marks  the  figure  i. 
Three  or  four  inches  from  this  figure  i  he  writes  the 
figure  2,  and  follows  this  up  with  3,  4,  and  5,  at  in- 
tervals. He  is  now  ready  to  receive  "A  Matter,"  and 
the  quicker  it  comes  the  better  is  he  satisfied. 

It  rarely  happens  that  the  type  sections  reach  the 
bank  in  the  order  in  which  the  pieces  of  copy  were 
given  out,  and  it  may  reasonably  be  supposed  that  in 
this  instance  2A  is  the  first  to  be  delivered.  Carrying 
the  section  in  a  short  galley,  one  of  the  men  who  re- 
lieve the  operators  of  their  output  walks  up  to  the 
bank  and  looks  around  until  he  finds  the  galley 
marked  A.  Then  he  deftly  lifts  the  section  and  deposits 


With  the  Printers  291 

it,  with  its  beginning  toward  the  closed  end  of 
the  galley,  and  one  side  resting  against  the  galley's 
lower  edge  exactly  on  the  figure  2.  Three  A, 
which  supposedly  comes  next,  is  placed  on  the 
figure  3,  and  before  long  the  other  three  sections  are 
set  in  place.  The  bankman  who,  all  this  time,  has 
been  keeping  an  eye  on  the  galley,  the  moment  he  sees 
all  the  numbers  covered,  begins  to  get  the  story  ready 
for  the  proof  press.  First,  he  slides  the  first  section, 
that  which  carries  the  heading,  up  against  the  galley's 
end;  next,  he  moves  section  2  up  as  far  as  it  will  go, 
and  after  this  the  other  sections.  The  article  is  now 
solid  from  end  to  end,  but  between  the  sections  are 
strips  of  lead  bearing  the  numbers  of  the  operators 
who  made  them.  Each  operator  has  a  number,  and 
while  at  work  is  known  as  "Slug  7"  or  whatever  his 
number  may  be,  instead  of  by  his  name.  Invariably, 
w^hen  a  section  of  type  is  deposited  on  the  bank,  it  is 
headed  by  the  slug  of  the  man  who  made  it,  and  these 
slugs  are  not  removed  until  after  proofs  have  been 
taken  and  the  article  has  been  corrected.  If  the  opera- 
tors are  doing  piece  work  the  slugs  enable  them  to 
prove  title  to  their  output,  and  in  any  event  tell  the 
foreman  how  much  and  what  class  of  work  each  man 
is  doing. 

As  soon  as  the  bankman  has  joined  the  sections  of 
an  article,  he  lays  a  strip  of  metal  along  the  free  side 
of  the  type,  and  inserting  wedges  behind  it,  locks  the 
article  firmly  in  place;  after  this  he  turns  the  gal- 
ley over  to  a  boy  wdio  carries  it  to  the  proof  press, 
w^here  four  proofs  are  taken,  one  for  the  managing 
editor,  one  for  the  foreman  of  the  composing  room, 
one  for  the  proofreaders,  and  one  for  the  operators. 
The  proof  press  in  its  simplest  form  is  an  iron  bed  a, 


292  Making  a  Newspaper 

foot  wide  and  three  01  four  times  as  long,  over  which 
a  heavy  felt-covered  roller  can  be  trundled.  Laying 
a  galley  on  the  press  bed,  the  proofmaker,  after  ink- 
ing the  type,  adjusts  a  slip  of  paper  and  makes  an  im- 
pression by  passing  the  roller  over  it. 

With  the  proofs  when  they  are  sent  to  the  proof- 
room, at  the  head  of  which  is  a  foreman  who  appor- 
tions the  work,  goes  the  copy  which  directed  the  com- 
positor. Always  the  proofreaders  work  in  pairs,  a 
proofreader  proper  who  receives  the  printed  slip,  and 
a  copy  holder  who  receives  the  copy.  Both  ready,  the 
copy  holder  begins  to  read  aloud  while  the  proof- 
reader, who  keeps  his  eyes  on  the  printed  slip  and 
reads  to  himself,  keeps  pace  with  him ;  marking  errors, 
as  they  proceed,  on  the  proof's  margin.  It  is  highly 
necessary  that  the  copy  holder  be  employed,  for  with- 
out him  it  would  be  impossible  to  catch  omissions  and 
added  words,  where  the  change  did  not  destroy 
sense.  The  copy  holders  read  very  rapidly,  but  they 
must  enunciate  distinctly,  even  though  they  read  for 
eight  hours  a  day  with  only  momentary  rests.  The 
correcting  of  mistakes  is  all  done  by  a  special  squad  of 
printers.  A  second  proof  is  taken  after  a  galley  has 
been  corrected,  and  the  galley  goes  to  the  make-up 
men  the  moment  the  proofreader  pronounces  it  all 
right. 

To  the  make-up  men  falls  the  task  of  taking  the 
completed  and  corrected  articles  from  the  galleys  and 
arranging  them  in  the  pages.  The  arrangement,  how- 
ever, is  not  left  to  their  judgment,  as  one  of  the 
editors,  as  has  been  explained,  directs  their  move- 
ments, at  least  so  far  as  the  important  stories  are  con- 
cerned. While  a  page  is  in  the  hands  of  the  make-up 
men  the  chase,  as  the  steel  frame  in  which  the  stories 


With  the  Printers  293 

are  deposited  is  called,  rests  flat  upon  a  smooth,  iron- 
topped  table  which,  as  it  is  supported  on  wheels,  can  be 
shifted  from  one  position  to  another  without  much 
effort.  The  type  or  lines  of  type  are  moved  about  in 
sections  like  blocks  of  wood,  a  liberal  application  of 
water  giving  them  a  fair  degree  of  firmness.  But  woe 
betide  the  man  who  grows  careless  with  types. 
Grasped  too  loosely  and  lifted,  a  section  will  fall  apart 
like  ashes,  while  squeezed  too  tightly,  it  will  bulge  and 
fly  in  every  direction.  In  either  event  the  mixture 
that  results  is  "pi"  and  the  section  must  be  reset.  The 
product  of  the  linotype  is  not  easily  *'pied,"  but  it  has 
the  disadvantage  that  to  correct  a  single  letter  an  en- 
tire line  must  be  reset.  In  making  up  a  page  the 
longer  articles  are  placed  well  toward  the  tops  of  the 
columns,  while  paragraphs  and  brief  stories  are  used  to 
justify  or  "make  even"  at  the  bottoms.  Both  editors 
and  copy  readers  keep  the  make-up  men  in  mind 
while  at  work,  and  send  many  short  stories,  items  that 
are  in  themselves  of  little  worth,  to  the  printers  w^ith 
the  thought  that  they  can  be  used  as  "justifiers." 
Should  the  making-up  at  any  time  be  retarded  through 
a  lack  of  these  space  fillers,  the  city  editor  is  sure  to  be 
reminded  that  their  presence  in  profusion  is  not  only 
desirable  but  necessary. 

Having  got  a  page  filled  to  his  satisfaction,  and  the 
two  stories,  "Collide"  and  "Fire,"  may  now  be  con- 
sidered as  having  places  where  they  will  not  be  over- 
looked, the  editor  who  directs  the  work  gives  the  w^ord 
to  "lock  up,"  and  the  page,  after  the  columns  of  type 
have  through  the  employment  of  side  sticks,  screws, 
and  wedges,  been  securely  fixed  in  place,  and  the 
whole  surface  has  been  gone  over  with  a  wooden 
block  and  a  mallet  to  "plane"  any  irregularities,  is 


294  Making  a  Newspaper 

started  for  the  stereotypers.  And  now  for  a  few 
moments  the  page  of  type  which,  once  locked  up,  be- 
comes a  form,  is  an  exceedingly  precious  article; 
should  any  accident  befall  it  the  managing  editor  has 
good  cause  to  tear  his  hair,  for  no  paper  can  be  issued 
until  the  damage  has  been  repaired.  And  every  long- 
established  paper  has  in  its  history  horrifying  incidents 
dealing  with  ''busted"  forms.  Sometimes  the  disaster 
comes  when  faulty  locking  up,  resulting  in  uneven 
pressure,  allows  a  good-sized  section  of  type  to 
drop  when  the  form  is  lifted;  sometimes  it  comes 
when  a  careless  workman,  bumping  the  form  against 
some  projecting  corner,  knocks  in  it  a  hole  through 
which  he  could  put  his  fist.  But  occasionally,  even 
worse  disasters  are  recorded.  A  stumble  or  a  loose 
grasp  may  land  the  form  on  the  floor  a  hopeless  jumble 
of  type,  column  rules,  leads  and  dashes ;  or  the  break- 
ing of  an  elevator  cable  may  distribute  these  same 
things  all  over  the  basement  five  or  ten  floors  down. 
It  is  the  province  of  the  stereotypers  to  reproduce 
the  type  pages  in  curved  metal  plates  which  can  be  at- 
tached in  multiple  to  the  cylinders  of  the  big  web 
presses.  A  type  form  in  itself  would  be  of  no  use  in 
a  modern  pressroom;  it  could  not  be  attached  to  any 
of  the  presses,  and  even  were  this  obstacle  in  some 
way  overcome,  only  one  press  could  be  run  at  a  time, 
which  would  extend  the  period  required  to  run  off  an 
edition  running  into  the  hundred  thousands  to  several 
days.  Nor  would  this  see  an  end  to  the  difficulty,  for 
long  before  the  edition  was  nearly  complete,  the  type 
faces  would  be  worn  off  until  they  produced  only 
blurs.  The  stereotypers,  taking  a  page  of  type,  re- 
produce from  it,  in  an  exceedingly  few  minutes,  plates 
sufficient   to   equip   perhaps   a    half-dozen    compound 


With  the  Printers  295 

presses  and  allow  them  all  to  run  at  one  time,  and 
should  it  be  found  that  a  plate  is  showing  signs  of 
wear,  they  quickly  offer  another  to  take  its  place. 

Receiving  a  page,  the  stereotypers,  who  never  have 
to  be  summoned  but  are  always  ready  and  waiting, 
slide  it,  face  up,  upon  the  flat  bed  of  a  strongly  built 
press.  Over  the  face  of  the  types  they  adjust  a  damp 
sheet  composed  of  a  number  of  sheets  of  tissue  paper 
pasted  together,  and  after  covering  this  with  a  blanket, 
start  the  machinery  which  moves  the  bed  bearing  the 
page  under  a  heavy  revolving  steel  drum.  Adjusted 
so  that  it  is  scarcely  more  than  the  thickness  of  a  sheet 
of  cardboard  above  the  face  of  the  page,  the  roller 
forces  the  soft  tissue  sheet  down  so  that  it  receives  a 
clear  impression  of  the  types.  With  the  paper  sheet 
adhering,  the  page  is  now  slid  into  another  press,  the 
upper  part  of  which  is  immediately  screwed  down  as 
tightly  as  two  men,  exerting  all  tiieir  strength  on  the 
big  wheel  at  the  top,  can  screw  it,  and  here  under 
pressure  and  subjected  to  great  heat,  for  the  machine 
is  surrounded  by  pipes  filled  with  steam,  the  form 
is  left  for  three  or  four  minutes.  At  the  end  of  this 
time  the  press  is  opened  and  the  paper  sheet,  now  be- 
come a  matrice,  is  removed.  And  now  for  the  first 
time  the  metal  page,  so  far  as  the  edition  under  way 
is  concerned,  loses  its  value;  if  no  more  editions  are 
to  be  printed  it  can  develop  the  worst  case  of  "pi"  ever 
seen  without  causing  the  least  confusion.  But  if  other 
editions  are  to  come  the  form  is  hurried  back  to  the 
composing  room  and  again  attacked  by  the  make-up 
men. 

The  paper  matrice  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  after 
it  comes  off  the  type  page,  is  bent  into  a  curve, 
thrust  into  a  revolving  oven  which  is  heated  by  gas 


296  Making  a  Newspaper 

flames,  and  subjected  to  a  minute's  baking.  Coming 
from  the  oven,  it  is  gone  over  by  the  stereotypers,  who, 
using  pieces  of  some  composition  material,  build  up 
low  places,  and  after  having  been  trimmed  to  size  wdth 
a  pair  of  shears,  is  carried  to  the  ''Autoplate,"  one  of 
the  newest  and  greatest  wonders  of  the  modern  news- 
paper establishment.  Before  this  machine  came  into 
use,  and  it  is  not  found  in  every  city  now,  the  stereo- 
typers, wishing  to  reproduce  a  page,  adjusted  the 
matrice  in  a  molding  box  which,  after  being  closed, 
was  filled  with  molten  metal.  The  box  was  opened 
after  the  lapse  of  a  minute  or  two,  or  as  soon  as  the 
metal  had  solidified,  and  the  plate  was  taken  out, 
dipped  into  a  tank  of  water  to  cool  it,  and  turned  over 
to  the  trimmers,  who  planed  off  the  edges  and  made 
it  ready  for  the  presses.  This  operation  had  to  be 
gone  through  as  many  times  as  there  were  plates 
needed.  The  *'Autoplate"  performs  all  this  work  auto- 
matically. The  matrice  is  put  in  place,  the  machine 
is  started,  and  immediately  the  plates,  cool  enough  to 
permit  handling,  begin  to  emerge,  all  ready  to  go  to  the 
pressroom,  at  the  rate  of  four  a  minute,  which  speed  can 
be  kept  up  indefinitely,  or  certainly  until  the  largest 
pressroom  in  the  country  is  supplied.  Each  "Auto- 
plate"  machine  costs  about  $25,000,  and  the  value 
assigned  to  seconds  when  they  come  at  the  time  for 
going  to  press,  in  a  modern  newspaper  establishment, 
cannot  be  better  illustrated  than  by  saying  that  sev- 
eral New  York  papers  have  two  of  these  machines 
set  up  in  their  stereotyping  departments.  Where 
every  facility  is  afforded,  the  stereotypers  regularly 
deliver  the  first  plate  thirteen  or  fourteen  minutes  after 
a  page  of  type  is  given  into  their  hands,  and  follow  this 
with  duplicates  at  fifteen  second  intervals.     To  a  per- 


With  the  Printers  297 

son  unfamiliar  with  newspaper  publishing,  the  ques- 
tion may  here  not  unnaturally  arise,  "Why  are  so 
many  plates  of  each  page  required?"  and  to  answer 
this  question  it  is  necessary  to  pass  to  a  description  of 
the  pressroom. 

Since  the  ultimate  aim  is  to  get  all  the  printed  papers 
into  the  hands  of  the  readers  quickly,  it  is  the  time 
required  to  print  the  entire  edition  which  counts. 
Because  of  this  the  owner  whose  paper  enjoys  a  large 
circulation  has  to  install  a  number  of  presses  and  at- 
tain an  early  "finish,"  by  operating  several  of  them  at 
one  time.  And,  to  be  strictly  accurate,  it  is  not  right 
to  call  one  of  the  highly  complicated  printing  machines 
"a  press,"  for  each  one  of  them  is  not  one  press,  but 
a  number  of  presses  built  together.  Thus  there  are 
double  presses,  quadruples,  double  quadruples,  sextu- 
ples,  octuples,  double  sextuples,  and  several  other 
kinds.  Dressed  to  print  an  8-page  paper,  a  quadruple 
press  carries  32  plates,  four  of  each  page,  while  an 
octuple,  printing  the  same  size  paper,  carries  eight 
plates  of  each  page,  or  64  in  all.  In  the  light  of  this 
explanation,  it  can  be  seen  why  duplicate  plates  are 
required,  and  it  is  'only  necessary  to  add  that  a  quad- 
ruple press  cannot  be  started  until  four  plates  for  each 
page  are  in  place,  nor  an  octuple  until  eight  plates  for 
each  page  are  on  the  cylinders,  to  show  how  desirable 
it  is  that  the  plates  follow  each  other  from  the  stereo- 
typing room  in  close  order. 

Here  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  managing 
editor  never,  if  he  can  avoid  it,  delivers  a  great  number 
of  pages  to  the  stereotypers  at  one  time.  Long  before 
the  scheduled  moment  for  going  to  press  arrives,  he 
makes  up  and  sends  along  the  editorial  page  and  the 
ones  which  contain  advertisements  only,  and  after  this 


298  Making  a  Newspaper 

at  intervals  delivers  the  inside  news  pages.  Each 
page  is  attacked  by  the  stereotypers  the  moment  it 
reaches  them,  and  the  plates  they  produce  are  without 
delay  screwed  to  the  cylinders  of  the  presses.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that,  wdth  the  time  for  going  to  press 
close  at  hand,  four  compound  presses  may  be 
equipped  to  turn  out  papers  except  that  each  one  lacks 
four  plates  of  one  page.  Usually  it  is  the  title  page  of 
the  paper  which  is  longest  wanting,  the  editor  holding 
it  to  insure  good  positions  for  the  late  news.  Lis- 
tening to  the  make-up  men  planing  the  last  page  the 
stereotypers  stand  on  pins  and  needles,  feet  braced  and 
arms  outstretched.  When  at  last  the  page  becomes 
theirs,  it  goes  through  the  various  processes  as  if  by 
clockwork  until  the  first  plate  is  produced.  The  plate 
weighs  52  pounds,  but  the  stereotypers  swing  it 
to  the  pressmen  as  if  it  were  made  of  nothing  heavier 
than  cardboard.  In  a  few  seconds  the  pressmen  have 
the  plate  in  its  place  on  one  of  the  presses,  and 
are  back,  like  Oliver  Twist,  asking  for  more.  The 
second  and  third  plates  in  place,  the  fourth  quickly 
follows.  Then  the  press  dressers  spring  from  the  maze 
of  wheels  with  a  shout  of  ''AH  clear!"  the  foreman 
gives  the  signal,  the  w^heels  begin  to  turn,  and  out 
come  the  papers  printed,  folded,  cut,  and  pasted 
at  the  rate,  say,  of  36,000  an  hour.  With  one 
press  at  w^ork  the  pressmen  turn  to  the  second  one,  and 
soon  its  machinery,  too,  is  moving,  and  the  papers  are 
appearing  at  the  rate  of  72,000  an  hour.  The  third 
press  in  motion  brings  the  output  up  to  108,000,  and 
the  fourth  in  full  swing  lifts  it  to  144,000  an  hour. 

The  blank  paper  four  pages  wide  is  fed  into  each 
press  from  several  rolls  or  webs,  each  of  which  at  the 
start  weighs  about  a  half  ton,  and  the  printed  papers 


With  the  Printers  299 

come  out  on  platforms,  neatly  piled,  with  every  fiftieth 
or  hundredth  one  projecting  a  little  beyond  the  others 
to  save  the  "fly  boys,"  who  carry  off  the  papers,  the 
necessity  of  counting.  To  ascertain  the  total  number 
of  papers  printed  at  any  time,  the  foreman  has  only  to 
inspect  the  counting  machine  with  which  each  press 
is  equipped.  In  the  pressroom  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle, 
the  presses  are  fitted  with  the  flying  paste  contrivance 
only  recently  introduced,  which  even  does  away 
with  the  necessity  of  stopping  to  renew  the  blank 
paper  supply.  The  rolls,  instead  of  resting  on  the 
press  itself,  are  suspended,  three  in  a  set,  on  a  triangu- 
lar frame  at  the  press's  end.  At  the  start  the  press  is 
fed  from  the  top  roll.  Finding  this  roll  getting  low 
the  head  pressman  slows  the  press  to  something  like 
quarter  speed  and  touches  an  electric  button  which 
causes  the  triangular  frame  to  revolve  slowly  and 
bring  the  second  roll,  which  begins  to  turn  on  its 
spindle  up,  inside  the  first  and  under  the  stream  of 
paper  leading  from  it.  The  free  end  of  this  second 
roll  has  been  liberally  covered  with  paste  and  finally, 
pressing  against  the  flying  web,  it  attaches  itself  to  it 
and  is  carried  along  through  the  press.  The  pressman 
then  cuts  the  first  web,  and  after  putting  the  press  up 
to  top  speed  again,  sets  about  fitting  a  new  roll  in  the 
place  of  the  one  exhausted. 

With  all  large  presses  it  is  possible  to  print  papers 
of  any  number  of  pages  up  to  the  maximum,  which 
is  usually  32  pages,  and  most  of  them  permit  of 
many  variations.  Thus,  in  a  double-quadruple  press 
there  are  two  distinct  sets  of  printing  machinery  which 
can  be  operated  separately  or  together.  One  end  of 
the  press  can  print  in  color  and  the  other  in  black;  if 
desired,  a  cover  of  one  grade  of  paper  can  be  printed 


300  Making  a  Newspaper 

and  folded  to  include  the  ordinary  output;  and  the 
pages  can  also  be  printed  half  size,  and  issued  bound 
by  wire  staples  in  magazine  form.  Ink  and  oil  are 
frequently  supplied  under  air  pressure  from  reservoirs 
some  distance  from  the  presses,  and  the  rolls  of  paper 
are  delivered  either  on  small  railways  or  traveling 
cranes.  Every  press  of  a  kind  that  would  now  be  in- 
stalled in  New  York  costs  a  good-sized  fortune, 
hardly  less  than  $45,000,  and  when,  as  occasionally 
happens,  one  of  them  is  started  after  a  careless  work- 
man has  left  a  wrench  or  a  steel  bar  in  its  interior,  the 
damage  that  results  in  a  half  second  may  call  for  an 
expenditure  of  more  money  than  the  average  mechanic 
earns  in  half  a  year.  Usually,  however,  when  any- 
thing goes  wrong  with  one  of  the  big  printing  ma- 
chines the  damage  is  confined  to  one  unit,  and  the  re- 
moval of  a  few  cogs  and  spindles  allows  the  remainder 
of  the  press  to  be  operated  as  before  the  accident. 

In  theory,  the  limitations  of  a  printing  press  are 
unbounded,  and  in  practice,  they  are  determined  only 
by  the  walls  of  the  pressroom  and  by  the  amount  of 
money  available.  The  unit  press  is  one  having  a  single 
cylinder  which  revolves  200  times  a  minute.  The 
cylinder  which  carries  eight  plates  prints  eight  pages 
at  every  revolution,  and  therefore,  in  sixty  minutes,  or 
one  hour,  the  output  is  12,000  eight  pages.  A  double 
press  prints  either  24,000  8-page  or  12,000  16- 
page  papers,  while  a  quadruple,  which  is  four  single 
presses  built  together,  prints  48,000  8-page  or  24,000 
16-page  papers.  A  double-quadruple  or  an  octuple, 
in  essence  eight  presses,  prints  96,000  8-page  or 
48,000  16-page  papers,  while  a  double-octuple  has 
double  this  capacity.  As  has  been  said,  there  is 
no  limit  to  the  joining  of  units,  but  the  largest  presses 


With  the  Printers  301 

in  operation  are  double-octuples.  Seven  of  these  ma- 
chines were  not  long  ago  made  in  New  York  and  de- 
livered to  a  London  newspaper.  The  largest  press 
in  New  York  is  a  double-sextuple,  whose  output  is 
96,000  12-page  or  72,000  16-page  papers  an  hour. 
All  these  figures  are  maximums.  In  actual  running, 
on  account  of  time  consumed  in  replacing  rolls  of  paper 
and  breaks  in  the  w^ebs,  the  pressroom  foreman  is  well 
satisfied  with  an  output  of  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the 
maximum.  The  pressroom  installation  of  the  New 
York  World  embraces  12  compound  presses  which  are 
equal  to  70  single  presses,  and  to  fit  them  all  560  plates, 
w^eighing  a  total  of  29,120  pounds,  are  required. 
Usually,  to  print  the  morning  edition,  nine  presses 
are  operated,  each  delivering  16,000  papers  an  hour,  or 
a  total  of  144,000.  With  every  press  in  this  plant  run- 
ning, the  hourly  output  of  8-page  papers  would 
come  close  to  800,000  copies.  Day  in  and  day 
out  the  first  paper  is  here  printed  within  fifteen  or  six- 
teen minutes  of  the  time  the  last  page  is  delivered  to 
the  stereotypers,  and  with  one  press  moving  the  others 
are  started  at  intervals  of  not  over  tw^o  minutes. 

In  a  few  evening  paper  offices  w^here  the  spirit  of 
rivalry  is  particularly  rampant  and  where  money  is 
plentiful,  the  time  required  to  get  out  a  paper  after 
the  receipt  of  important  news  is  greatly  reduced 
through  the  employment  of  a  device  known  as  the 
"fudge."  Where  the  fudge  is  included,  in  the  mechani- 
cal department  it  is  the  practice  of  the  editors  to  have 
the  title  page  of  the  paper  the  moment  it  has  been 
stereotyped  for  a  regular  edition,  returned  to  the  com- 
posing room  and  remade,  this  time  with  an  open  space, 
usually  two  columns  wide  and  four  or  five  inches  high, 
left  somewhere  in  it.    From  the  page  is  now  made  an 


302  Making  a  Newspaper 

emergency  plate  which  is  hurried  to  the  pressroom 
and  deposited  close  to  one  of  the  presses.  Probably 
forty-nine  times  out  of  fifty  the  emergency  plate  re- 
mains there  untouched  until  it  is  picked  up  to  go  back 
to  the  melting  pot,  but  for  all  this  it  is  never  forgotten, 
for  when  it  is  needed  at  all  it  is  needed  very  badly. 

The  fudge  itself  includes  a  small  printing  cylinder 
which  is  attached  to  one  of  the  big  presses,  and  a  small 
curved  chase  which  can  be  locked  on  the  cylinder  by  a 
few  turns  of  the  wrist.  To  illustrate  the  operation  of  the 
fudge  it  may  be  supposed  that,  a  few  minutes  after  the 
printing  of  a  regular  edition  has  been  begun,  a  piece 
of  news  which  it  is  highly  desirable  should  be  made 
public  is  received  in  the  editorial  rooms.  Immediately 
one  of  the  editors  writes  a  brief  bulletin  and  delivers 
it  to  a  fast  compositor  while  another  editor  telephones 
to  the  pressroomi  that  an  "extra"  is  in  order.  The 
compositor  does  his  best  on  his  short  take,  and  in 
less  time  than  is  required  to  tell  it  the  bulletin  is  in 
type  and  on  its  way  to  the  pressroom  securely  locked 
in  a  fudge  chase.  In  the  meantime  the  pressmen  have 
stopped  one  of  their  presses,  removed  the  regular  title 
page  plate  and  in  its  place  fitted  the  "emergency."  The 
press  could  now  be  run  as  before,  but  the  papers  would 
come  out  with  a  blank  space  on  each  front  page.  Rc' 
ceiving  the  fudge  chase  the  pressmen  carry  it  to  the 
small  cylinder  and  fasten  it  on  it  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  type  bulletin  will  "key"  exactly  into  the  blank, 
space  left  on  the  web  after  it  has  received  the  impres- 
sion of  the  emergency  plate,  and  a  moment  later  the 
press  is  again  running.  The  bulletin  is  printed  di- 
rectly from  the  type  and  in  any  color,  as  the  small 
cylinder  has  an  independent  ink  supply.  If  the  New 
York  City  Hall  were  to  fall  down,  both  the  Evening 


With  the  Printers  303 

Journal  and  the  Evening  World  would,  in  all  proba- 
bility, have  ''fudge  extras"  on  the  street  within  four 
minutes,  and  not  unlikely  one  of  them  would  cut  this 
time  by  half  a  minute. 

When  they  are  expecting  a  piece  of  news  the  men 
who  direct  the  fudge  work  even  more  quickly,  for  the 
intelligence  is  received  in  the  pressroom  over  a  special 
telegraph  wire  and  is  turned  into  type  on  a  composing 
machine  set  up  right  beside  one  of  the  presses.  Scores 
of  important  baseball  and  football  games  are  always 
received  in  the  pressroom  and  printed  within  a  minute 
and  a  half  of  the  moment  the  figures  are  announced 
by  the  telegraph  operator.  But  when  the  possible  re- 
sults are  known  beforehand,  as  on  the  occasion  of  a 
horse  race,  the  men  who  handle  the  quick  printing 
apparatus  perform  not  in  minutes  but  in  seconds.  If 
there  are  four  horses  entered,  some  editor  early  in  the 
day  has  turned  into  type  three  independent  lines  for 
each  one,  thus,  Firefly  wins,  Firefly  was  second, 
Firefly  was  third;  and  shortly  before  the  time  set  for 
the  starting  of  the  race  these  lines  are  arranged  face 
up  so  that  they  can  be  easily  read  on  a  table  close  beside 
the  fudge  cylinder  of  a  press  bearing  an  emergency 
plate.  The  fudge  chase  which  bears  a  type  heading  like 
"Suburban  Result,"  having  room  left  in  it  for  only 
three  lines  of  type  is  also  placed  on  the  table,  and  in 
front  of  it  a  quick-fingered  man  stations,  himself. 
At  his  elbow  sits  the  telegraph  operator,  who  is 
in  direct  communication  with  a  man  stationed  at 
the  finish  line  at  the  race  track.  When  the  race 
starts  the  operator  announces,  "They're  off,"  and  then, 
listening  to  his  instrument,  describes  the  progress  of 
the  contest.  As  the  horses  near  the  end  of  their 
journey  there  is  a  pause;  then  the  result  is  announced. 


304  Making  a  Newspaper 

''Rob  Roy  wins,"  calls  out  the  operator;  "Firefly  was 
second;  Delano  third."  The  lines  of  type  bearing 
these  announcements  are  slipped  into  the  spaces  left  for 
them ;  the  chase  is  locked  and  adjusted  on  its  cylinder, 
a  gong  sounds,  and  before  the  race  horses  have  been 
more  than  turned  toward  the  paddock  the  press  is 
moving.  The  feat  has  more  than  once  been  accom- 
plished in  fifteen  seconds. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  MONEY-MAKING  DEPARTMENT 

And  now  that  it  has  been  explained  how  the  re- 
porters and  correspondents  gather  the  news,  how  the 
editors  prepare  it  for  publication,  how  the  editorial 
writers  perform  their  duties,  and  how  the  printers 
actually  make  the  paper,  it  is  high  time  to  say  some- 
thing about  that  part  of  the  newspaper  which  furnishes 
the  money,  and  particularly  about  the  purse  holder, 
the  business  manager.  In  an  actual  newspaper  office 
and  not  in  a  mere  description  of  one,  the  business 
manager  would  never  be  found  bringing  up  the  tail 
end  of  the  procession.  Outside  of  the  editorial  rooms, 
from  cellar  to  roof,  his  word  is  law.  And  inside, 
while  he  does  not,  as  many  persons  would  have  it  sup- 
posed, dictate  the  paper's  policy  nor  spend  half  his 
time  suppressing  news,  his  word  is  law,  subject  to  the 
court  of  last  resort.  His  decisions  hold  good,  in  brief, 
unless  they  conflict  with  the  paper's  constitution. 

Rarely  has  the  business  manager  served  an  appren- 
ticeship in  the  editorial  department.  Often  when  he 
has  not  risen  by  degrees  in  a  newspaper's  business 
office  he  comes  from  a  banking  house  where  he  has 
learned  how  accounts  are  kept,  how  collections  are 
made,  and  how  notes  and  other  commercial  paper  are 
handled;  and  sometimes  he  comes  from  a  mercantile 
or  manufacturing  establishment,  where  he  has  been 
taught  these  things,  and  in  addition  has  been  trained 

305 


306  Making  a  Newspaper 

to  direct  other  men,  to  buy  and  sell  to  advantage,  and 
to  conduct  a  business  economically.  Whatever  his 
training  he  must  be  quick  to  detect  a  schemer,  for  con- 
tinually he  is  pursued  by  men  who,  while  possessing 
no  money,  have  brilliant  plans  which  they  say  need 
only  to  be  exploited  to  bring  in  floods  of  wealth.  On 
their  prospects,  they  would  like  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  advertising  which  is  to  put  them  on  the  road 
to  affluence.  Not  often  do  these  schemers  succeed  in 
painting  word  pictures  radiant  enough  to  dazzle  the 
business  manager,  for  constantly  hunted,  he  becomes 
shy  and  hard  to  bag. 

Few  persons  not  having  intimate  knowledge  of  a 
newspaper  have  any  idea  of  the  great  amount  of 
money  required  to  start  one,  or  to  keep  one  running 
which  is  already  established.  The  mechanical  equip- 
ment and  delivery  service  alone  may  demand  an  invest- 
ment of  several  hundred  thousand  dollars — there  is 
one  New  York  paper  whose  mechanical  equipment 
cost  $1,000,000 — supplies  are  in  constant  demand, 
and  the  salary  list  is  a  long  and  heavy  one.  For 
a  new  paper  the  salary  list  of  the  editorial  department 
is  especially  formidable,  as  editors  and  reporters  who 
have  employment  with  well  established  publications 
are  always  reluctant  to  change  to  a  venture  that  at 
best  is  in  for  a  rough  voyage,  and  can  be  attracted 
only  by  high  pay.  A  good  many  of  the  newspapers 
that  are  started  soon  become  memories,  and  fewer 
than  are  generally  supposed  are  paying  their  own  way. 
The  sum  of  $3,000,000  would  hardly  suffice  at  the 
present  time  to  equip  a  first-class  newspaper  establish- 
ment in  New  York  City,  issue  a  morning  and  an  even- 
ing edition  paper,  build  up  a  circulation  of  75,000 
for  each,  and  place  the  establishment  on  a  money- 


The  Money-Making  Department      307 

making  basis.  Run  on  the  lines  of  those  already  es- 
tablished and  possessing  no  extraordinary  features  to 
recommend  them  to  the  public,  the  two  papers  might 
continue  to  lose  money  for  twenty  years.  When  one 
^earns  that  there  are  in  New  York  business  managers 
\\ho  are  compelled  to  reckon  with  an  average  weekly 
expense  account  of  nearly  $50,000,  he  can  understand 
the  possibility  of  heavy  losses.  And  it  might  be  added, 
in  contrast,  that  there  are  in  New  York  newspapers 
which  could  not  be  bought  for  $10,000,000. 

An  honest  newspaper  which  does  not  sell  news  to 
other  publications  has  only  two  sources  of  income. 
One  source  is  the  public,  which  buys  the  paper  for  its 
news,  its  editorials,  or  maybe  its  pictures.  From  this 
the  return  is  comparatively  small;  but  upon  the  nu- 
merical strength  of  a  paper's  readers  and  their  financial 
standing  as  a  class,  depends  the  size  of  the  income 
which  flows  from  the  other  source — the  advertisers. 
It  might  be  supposed,  at  first  thought,  that  the  paper 
which  had  the  largest  circulation  would  be  most  prized 
by  advertisers.  But  such  is  not  always  the  case;  the 
class  of  readers  is  a  large  factor  in  determining  the 
worth  of  a  paper  as  an  advertising  medium.  There 
are  some  publications  which  even  make  a  virtue  of  the 
fact  that  they  do  not  have  large  circulations,  content- 
ing themselves  with  asserting  that  their  readers  are 
more  likely  to  buy  than  are  the  readers  of  some  other 
journals.  Papers  which  make  this  claim  generally 
sell  for  two  or  three  cents ;  and  advertisers,  keeping  it  in 
mind  that  persons  who  pay  these  prices  for  newspapers 
can  probably  pay  prices  above  the  average  for  other 
things  which  they  may  desire,  are  willing  to  buy  space 
in  their  columns  at  rates  which  would  not  be  warranted 
were  the  number  of  readers  alone  considered. 


308  Making  a  Newspaper 

The  ideal  newspaper  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
business  manager  would  be  one  selHng  for  three  or 
five  cents  which  had  a  circulation  larger  than  any  of 
its  competitors.  But  there  are  few  publications  which 
come  close  to  answering  this  description.  Almost 
always  the  paper  which  has  the  best  class  of  readers, 
ability  to  buy  here  marking  the  classification,  has  far 
from  the  largest  circulation,  while,  in  the  great  centers 
of  population,  the  paper  which  has  the  most  readers 
rarely  numbers  among  them  many  individuals  who 
are  wealthy.  Where,  however,  there  is  one  advertiser 
who  asks  about  the  class,  there  is  always  another  who 
inquires  about  the  number  of  a  paper's  readers.  The 
merchant  who  had  cheap  groceries  to  dispose  of  would 
never  think  of  advertising  in  a  paper  the  bulk  of  whose 
readers  were  bankers,  brokers,  or  merchants,  and  the 
paper  he  would  most  highly  prize  would  of  a  certainty 
be  ignored  by  the  man  who  had  for  sale  high-priced 
automobiles. 

Of  readers  alone  a  newspaper  may  get  too  many 
for  its  own  good,  for  a  large  circulation  unaccom- 
panied by  advertising  receipts  in  proportion  is  a  costly 
luxury.  It  is  not  in  selling  its  issue  to  readers  that  a 
newspaper  makes  a  profit,  but  in  selling  advertising 
space.  The  individual  copies  of  a  newspaper  are  sold 
at  less  than  cost,  if  the  advertising  receipts  are  not 
counted,  so  in  one  sense  the  more  copies  a  paper  dis- 
poses of  the  more  money  it  loses.  Generally  a  paper 
which  finds  its  circulation  growing  so  that  new  equip- 
ment is  necessary,  must  advance  its  rates  for  adver- 
tising space,  or  operate  at  less  profit.  An  increase  in 
the  amount  of  advertising  may  serve  instead  of  higher 
rates,  but  not  always,  for  as  advertisements  cannot  be 
allowed  to  crowd  out  news,  an  increase  in  their  bulk 


The  Money-Making  Department      309 

may  demand  a  larger  paper  and  consequently  more 
paper  and  ink,  and  maybe  more  presses  and  a  larger 
delivery  equipment. 

While  an  honest  newspaper  which  does  not  sell  news 
has  only  two  sources  of  income,  it  does  not  necessarily 
follow  that  all  newspapers  are  dependent  upon  what 
comes  to  them  through  these  channels  alone;  far  from 
it.  A  widely-read  newspaper  has  money  offered  to  it 
on  all  sides,  and  if  it  takes  all  within  reach  it  sinks 
pretty  low.  Some  papers,  seeking  to  justify  the  course 
they  pursue,  draw  distinctions  that  are  too  fine  for  the 
average  man  to  comprehend,  and  among  these  are  the 
ones  that  in  return  for  an  extra  compensation  print 
disguised  advertisements  in  their  news  columns.  For 
example,  a  paper  may  print  a  long  article  in  its  news 
columns,  saying  that  oil  has  been  discovered  on  prop- 
erty owned  by  Blink,  Blank  &  Co.,  "the  well-known 
brokers."  The  public,  reading  this,  thinks  how  lucky 
Blink,  Blank  &  Co.  are,  and  John  Smith,  Henry  Brown, 
and  others  hasten  to  the  offices  of  the  brokers  to  invest 
their  money  in  these  same  oil  lands,  which  is  just  what 
Blink,  Blank  &  Co.  had  planned  when  they  paid  the 
newspaper  to  make  the  announcement.  Or  again,  this 
same  newspaper  may  declare  with  much  enthusiasm 
that  James  Black,  after  years  of  experimenting,  has 
perfected  an  automatic  machine  which  is  going  to  rev- 
olutionize the  making  of  shoes,  and  when  Mr.  Black 
forms  a  stock  company  to  manufacture  and  operate 
the  machines,  the  persons  who  read  of  the  wonderful 
invention  pay  him  well  for  the  possibly  worthless 
stock.  In  New  York  City  there  are  no  papers  which 
will  print  advertisements  disguised  as  news;  when  an 
advertisement  is  in  a  form  that  does  not  readily  dis- 
close its  identity  it  is  labeled  at  the  end  by  the  abbre- 


310  Making  a  Newspaper 

viation  "adv."  or  some  symbol  such  as  a  star  or  a  dag- 
ger. 

But  many  newspapers  which  would  absolutely  re- 
fuse to  print  disguised  advertisements  do,  without  hesi- 
tation, print  advertisements  which  decency  should 
taboo.  Also  they  fill  whole  pages  with  prospectuses 
of  concerns  which  promiise  to  make  wealthy  all  who 
patronize  them,  when,  as  everyone  who  has  any  con- 
nection with  the  papers  knows,  the  men  who  make  the 
great  promises  are  swindlers  who  prey  on  ignorant 
or  unusually  credulous  persons.  A  few  years  ago, 
when  one  of  these  "get  rich  quick  concerns,"  as  they 
are  called,  went  to  the  wall,  it  was  made  public  that 
its  promoters  had  succeeded  in  getting  into  their 
clutches  more  than  $2,000,000,  while  the  creditors 
numbered  over  twenty  thousand.  This  concern  had  ad- 
vertised in  scores  of  papers  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

A  large  part  of  whatever  temptation  there  is  comes 
to  the  business  managers,  and  with  opportunities  for 
adding  to  their  papers'  incomes  on  so  many  sides,  the 
wonder  is  that  they  do  not  more  frequently  allow 
themselves  to  be  convinced  by  the  plausible  arguments 
of  those  seeking  their  favor. 

One  of  the  first  tasks  of  a  business  manager,  his 
paper  having  a  home  and  a  mechanical  equipment,  is 
to  engage  an  advertising  manager  and  a  manager  for 
the  circulation  department.  After  finding  these  men 
he  can  proceed  to  organize  his  clerical  force,  compris- 
ing a  cashier,  bookkeepers,  solicitors,  clerks  to  receive, 
measure,  and  record  advertisements ;  and  general  office 
clerks,  including  those  who  are  to  sell  papers  either 
over  the  business  office  counter  or  direct  from  the 
pressrooms.  With  the  editorial  rooms,  though,  and 
these  include  the  quarters  of  the  reporters,  he  rarely 


The  Money-Making  Department      311 

concerns  himself.  He  is  required  to  furnish  the  money 
to  pay  the  men  employed  there,  and  because  of  this 
has  the  right  to  protest  against  any  needless  extrava- 
gance, but  he  usually  disposes  of  the  matter,  and  at  the 
same  time  shifts  part  of  his  burden,  by  going  to  the 
editor-in-chief  and  the  managing  editor  at  intervals, 
and  telling  them  that  until  further  notice  they  may 
have  a  certain  amount  of  money  every  month  to  run 
their  end  of  the  paper. 

As  the  business  manager's  aim  is  to  make  the  paper 
remunerative,  he  gives  the  greater  part  of  his  attention 
to  the  procuring  of  advertising  and  to  the  distribution 
of  the  printed  papers  among  the  dealers  who  put 
them  into  the  hands  of  the  readers.  In  a  few 
establishments  he  personally  directs  the  men  who  go 
about  soliciting  advertising,  telling  them  whom  to 
see  and  how  to  present  and  explain  the  advantages  of 
the  paper,  but  commonly  the  advertising  manager 
gives  the  specific  instructions.  In  any  event,  the  busi- 
ness manager  fixes  the  advertising  rates,  that  is,  sets 
the  price  at  which  space  shall  be  sold,  and  conducts 
negotiations  with  the  leading  advertisers,  among 
whom  are  the  proprietors  of  the  large  dry  goods 
houses  and  department  stores.  He  also  closes  con- 
tracts with  the  agencies  through  which  advertisements 
of  patent  medicines,  cigars  and  cigarettes,  beers  and 
whiskies,  and  other  widely  advertised  articles  are 
placed  by  the  makers.  These  agencies  receive  a  com- 
mission from  the  paper  on  all  money  which  they  turn 
over  to  it,  and  they  make  it  their  business  to  learn  as 
much  about  a  paper's  circulation  and  the  class  of  read- 
ers it  has  as  is  possible,  so  that  they  can  deter- 
mine whether  the  prices  asked  for  space  are  equi- 
table. 


312  Making  a  Newspaper 

It  is  worth  remarking  here  that  a  business  manager 
does  not  simply  say  that  space  is  worth  so  much  an 
inch.  He  considers  the  advertisers'  wants  and  posi- 
tion as  much  as  his  own,  and  makes  them  pay  in  pro- 
portion as  they  may  reasonably  expect  to  benefit.  How 
the  classification  is  determined  is  sometimes  hard  to 
see,  as  when  a  banker  is  required  to  pay  more  than  a 
broker  for  his  announcements,  but  the  business  mana- 
ger works  it  all  out  to  his  own  satisfaction,  and  is  pre- 
pared to  explain  when  a  question  is  raised.  There  is 
one  New  York  paper  which  will,  for  a  servant  desiring 
a  situation,  print  a  three-line  advertisement  for  fifteen 
cents.  But  from  a  householder  who  wishes  to  engage 
a  servant,  it  will  for  an  advertisement  of  the  same  size, 
demand  twice  this  sum.  If  the  mistress  suffers  an 
accident  in  the  street,  and  later  advertises  for  witnesses, 
the  three  lines  will  cost  her  ninety  cents,  and  if  tired  of 
living  alone  she  advertises  for  a  husband,  she  will  for 
the  three-line  advertisement  have  to  pay  three  dollars, 
or  twenty  times  as  much  as  the  servant  who  wishes 
employment  pays  to  make  her  desire  known. 

Both  advertising  patrons  and  readers  are  pursued 
assiduously  in  large  cities,  and  the  larger  the  city  and 
the  richer  the  paper- -for  where  money  is  plenty  only 
successful  solicitors  are  employed — the  more  energetic 
the  pursuit.  If  a  merchant  places  an  advertisement  in 
one  publication,  representatives  of  its  competitors  are 
never  long  in  appearing  to  ask  for  a  share  of  his  busi- 
ness, and  each  caller  can  present  reasons  why  the  paper 
he  represents  should  be  recognized.  Generally  each 
paper  is  content  to  have  its  own  good  points  set  forth 
without  any  reflection  being  made  on  its  contempora- 
ries, but  occasionally  the  solicitors  direct  the  adver- 
tisers' eyes  to  weak  points  in  the  arguments  of  one 


The  Money-Making  Department     3 1  3 

another  and  this  may  be  followed  by  rebates,  commis- 
sions, free  insertions,  and  cut  rates  appearing  as  weap- 
ons in  a  fierce  warfare.  Of  course,  all  the  papers  suffer 
while  the  fight  is  on,  for  with  the  amount  of  advertis- 
ing remaining  about  the  same,  the  only  result  is  a 
smaller  gross  return,  and  decreased  receipts  for  each 
publication. 

Greatly  desired  by  every  paper,  but  extremely  hard 
to  capture,  is  a  fine  showing  of  the  kinds  of  advertis- 
ing that  come  under  the  heading  "Classified,"  all  the 
small  announcements  that  fall  in  with  "Help 
Wanted,"  ''Situations  Wanted,"  'Tost,"  and  "To 
Let."  These  advertisements  are  in  demand,  because 
in  addition  to  paying  well,  they  increase  circulation, 
and  enable  the  paper  to  get  close  to  its  readers;  and 
they  are  hard  to  get  because  they  follow  the  crowd  and 
go  only  where  others  of  their  kind  are  found.  They 
act  like  ducks,  and  as  in  duck  hunting,  decoys  are 
sometimes  employed  to  attract  them;  but  never  has 
this  kind  of  hunting  proved  very  profitable  to  the 
paper  trying  it.  Generally,  the  paper  which  has  no 
classified  advertisements  can  pursue  them  with  solic- 
itors, advertise  for  them,  cut  rates,  give  premiums, 
and  even  offer  to  print  them  for  nothing,  without  mak- 
ing any  progress  worth  mentioning.  And  the  paper 
which  has  a  fine  array  can  usually  do  aw^ay  with 
solicitors  entirely,  expend  no  more  than  a  nomi- 
nal sum  in  self-advertising,  charge  high  rates,  and 
even  increase  them,  and  still  have  the  prized  advertise- 
ments keep  rolling  in,  so  long  as  it  maintains  its  stand- 
ard as  a  newspaper  and  docs  not,  through  some  mis- 
take, make  itself  widely  unpopular.  The  situation  is 
this :  when  a  man  desires  employment,  he  carries  his 
announcement  to  the  paper  which  prints  the  most  ad- 


314  Making  a  Newspaper 

vertisements  of  this  kind,  because  he  knows  that  it  is 
to  this  paper  that  the  persons  who  wish  to  employ 
help  naturally  turn;  and  reversing  the  situation, 
the  man  who  is  in  the  market  for  help,  of  course,  pat- 
ronizes the  paper  which  he  knows  is  inspected  by  place 
hunters. 

In  the  larger  cities  the  daily  publications  do  not  de- 
liver papers  direct  to  readers,  the  force  required  to 
deliver  the  output  of  one  big  establishment  alone 
would  make  a  good-sized  army;  but  nevertheless,  the 
circulation  manager  is  forever  devising  means  of  get- 
ting new  customers.  Often  he  employs  solicitors  to  go 
around  and  offer  books  of  various  kinds  to  persons 
who  will  agree  to  allow  the  newsdealer  nearest  them 
to  deliver  the  paper  to  them  for  a  year,  and  again  he 
holds  out  other  prizes.  But  commonly,  after  submit- 
ting to  the  business  manager  suggestions  whose 
adoption  he  thinks  would  add  to  the  paper's  attractive- 
ness, he  strives  to  attain  his  end  by  having  the 
paper  widely  and  promptly  circulated.  He  never 
forgets  that  a  paper,  no  matter  how  excellent  it 
be,  cannot  win  readers  to  whom  it  is  never  of- 
fered, and  he  does  not  allow  himself  to  entertain  the 
mistaken  idea  that  a  paper  that  is  slow  to  reach  the 
newsstands  will  even  hold  its  own;  that  with  other 
papers  spread  before  them  readers  will  be  content  to 
stand  around  and  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  paper  he 
distributes.  An  occasional  man  may  do  this  fre- 
quently, and  the  average  man  may  do  it  occasionally, 
but  neither  will  be  content  to  make  it  a  steady  practice. 
Unable  to  procure  their  favorite  paper  at  the  time 
they  know  it  should  be  on  hand,  both  sooner  or 
later  turn  to  other  papers,  it  may  be  for  good,  for  fre- 
quently a  man  finds  in  a  paper  with  which  he  has  not 


The  Money-Making  Department      315 

been  familiar  more  features  that  appeal  to  him  than 
are  contained  in  the  one  to  which  he  is  accustomed ; 
and  again,  reading  a  certain  paper  for  a  few  days,  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  the  only  one  pro- 
curable, a  man  may  come  to  select  it  through  habit. 
The  persons  who  walk  up  to  a  newsstand,  lay  down 
their  money,  and  pick  up  the  first  paper  upon  which 
their  eyes  chance  to  light  are  exceedingly  few. 

The  notice  printed  at  the  head  of  the  editorial  page 
of  many  of  the  largest  papers  to  the  effect  that  the 
publisher  will  consider  it  a  favor  if  any  person  who  is 
unable  to  procure  the  paper  at  his  newsdealer's  will 
make  the  fact  known,  means  all  that  it  implies.  It 
means  that  the  circulation  manager  will  do  his  best  to 
remedy  the  defect,  and  when  he  does  his  best  in  a  case 
of  this  kind  he  generally  accomplishes  what  he  has  set 
out  to  do.  He  remembers  the  man  who  made  the  com- 
plaint, and  writes  him  a  letter  of  thanks,  but  he  does 
not  set  to  work  as  if  only  a  single  customer  were  to  be 
satisfied.  He  knows  that  where  one  man  takes  the 
trouble  to  write  there  are  a  score  who  will  remain 
silent,  and  further,  he  tells  himself  that  there  are  in 
the  same  locality,  in  all  probability,  a  half  hundred 
m.ore  persons  who  now  giving  no  thought  to  the  paper 
might  become  its  patrons  if  it  were  placed  within  their 
reach.  At  least,  he  will  change  a  delivery  route  to  get 
his  paper  into  the  neglected  territory,  and  he  may  go 
further  and  make  out  a  new  route. 

If  any  newspaper  publisher  imagines  it  is  not  worth 
while  hunting  readers  as  individuals,  he  should  pay  a 
visit  to  Brooklyn  and  investigate  the  methods  pursued 
by  the  oldest  paper  of  that  city,  a  publication  that  is 
a  success  in  every  department,  and  a  great  money- 
maker.   Somehow,  whenever  a  new  family  moves  into 


3 1 6  Making  a  Newspaper 

BrcMDklyn,  this  paper,  the  Eagle,  learns  of  it;  just  how 
is  an  office  secret.  Within  a  week  the  woman  who  heads 
the  household  receives  a  typewritten  letter, — not  a  car- 
bon copy  or  a  fac-simile, — signed  by  the  paper,  saying 
it  is  glad  the  family  has  moved  to  Brooklyn;  that  it 
hopes  their  experience  in  the  city  will  be  pleasant  and 
satisfactory;  that  it  will  be  found  that  the  Brooklyn- 
ites  are  neighborly,  and  that  ''if  you  will  take  an 
active  interest  in  our  social  and  political  life,  you  and 
your  family  will  soon  have  a  desirable  list  of  new 
acquaintances  and  friends."  Not  a  word  is  said  about 
the  paper.  Within  the  next  week  the  family  receives 
free  of  cost  a  copy  of  the  paper's  almanac,  which  sells 
for  fifty  cents,  and  an  invitation  to  visit  the  paper's 
home,  one  of  the  show  places  of  the  city.  Then  a 
young  woman  representing  the  publication  calls  on  the 
newcomers;  never  before  9.30  o'clock  in  the  morning 
or  later  than  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  gives 
them  any  information  that  she  can;  tells  them  about 
car  lines,  schools,  churches,  stores,  and  places  of 
amusement,  and  if  they  ask  any  questions  which  she 
is  unable  to  answer,  promises  to  make  inquiries.  The 
visitor  makes  no  more  direct  mention  of  the  paper 
than  did  the  letter,  but  leaving  the  house  she  stops  at 
the  nearest  newsdealer's  and  orders  that  a  copy  be 
delivered  to  the  family  for  one  month,  the  bill  to  go 
to  the  paper's  business  office.  At  the  end  of  the  month 
the  young  wom.an  makes  another  call,  and  this  time 
the  family  is  asked  how  they  have  liked  the  paper,  and 
whether  they  have  decided  to  take  it  regularly ;  and  no 
matter  what  the  reply,  the  visitor  leaves  as  she  came, 
smiling.  No  family  is  neglected,  not  even  foreigners 
who  cannot  speak  English.  The  promotion  work  costs 
about  one  dollar  "per  prospect,"  yet  the  publisher  gets 


The  Money-Making  Department      317 

returns  that  satisfy  him  that  his  campaign  is  a  winning 
one. 

When  it  comes  to  getting  the  paper  circulated 
promptly,  the  business  manager  and  the  circulation 
manager  are  always  endeavoring  to  improve  on  exist- 
ing conditions.  Hearing  of  a  new  piece  of  machinery 
that  will  save  a  few  seconds  in  the  pressrooms,  they 
hasten  to  inspect  it,  and,  the  treasury  allowing,  make 
arrangements  for  its  installation;  the  opening  of  a 
new  street  railroad  or  the  putting  on  of  a  new  train  by 
a  railroad  company  sets  them  to  poring  over  time- 
tables and  maps;  and  the  introduction  before  the  al- 
dermen of  an  ordinance  providing  for  the  visiting  of 
unusually  severe  penalties  upon  fast  drivers,  induces 
them  to  rush  upstairs  to  see  the  editors,  down  town  to 
see  lawyers,  and  across  town  to  see  politicians.  The 
circulation  department  keeps  those  who  control  it  ex- 
tremely busy,  and  it  keeps  them  worried,  too,  for  it  is 
forever  breaking  down  in  spots.  The  horses  that  draw 
the  wagons  get  sick  or  go  lame;  the  wagons  go  to 
pieces  either  through  hard  use,  or  suddenly  in  colli- 
sions ;  the  drivers  are  arrested  for  running  over  some- 
one or  coming  near  it,  sometimes  missing  trains  as  a 
result;  and  the  newsboys  become  disgruntled  because 
they  cannot  get  eleven  instead  of  ten  papers  for  five 
cents. 

Issues  intended  for  the  city  the  circulation  men 
rush  from  the  pressrooms  into  wagons  that  are  driven 
as  fast  as  the  police  will  allow,  which  commonly  means 
as  fast  as  the  horses  can  go,  to  distributing  points 
where  they  are  met  by  the  newsdealers  and  newsboys. 
In  New  York  both  the  elevated  and  subway  railways 
are  also  employed;  large  bundles  of  papers  are  piled 
on  the  platforms  of  the  cars  at  the  stations  nearest  the 


3  1 8  Making  a  Newspaper 

offices  and  distributed  along  the  entire  roads  to  wait- 
ing retailers.  At  certain  stations,  too,  thousands  of 
papers  are  thrown  off  and  carried  to  wagons  waiting  in 
the  street,  which  carry  them  either  direct  to  the  retailers 
or  to  distributing  points.  The  New  York  papers  were 
among  the  earliest  users  of  automobiles,  but  the  ma- 
chines they  tried  were  found  to  be  too  light  for  the 
work,  and  were  discarded.  Evening  papers  dispose  of 
thousands  of  their  issues  at  the  pressroom  doors  and 
especial  efforts  are  made  to  supply  the  newsboys 
quickly  when  the  papers  that  give  the  closing  quota- 
tions of  the  stock  market  are  coming  from  the  presses. 
All  through  the  financial  district  these  quotations  are 
in  demand,  and  the  first  paper  to  reach  the  scene  makes 
the  most  sales,  as  at  this  time  there  is  little  waiting 
for  favorite  publications.  Covering  the  district  thor- 
oughly and  having  a  clear  field  for  fifteen  minutes, 
a  paper  could  probably  distribute  twenty  thousand 
copies.  Papers  intended  for  out-of-town  readers  are 
forwarded  by  both  mail  and  express.  For  the  morn- 
ing issues  there  are  special  trains  of  express  cars 
which  stop  only  at  large  towns ;  at  small  stations  bun- 
dles of  papers  are  tossed  off  without  the  train  slacking 
speed. 

Of  necessity  the  business  manager,  while  he  would 
like  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  acquisition  of 
money,  must  give  part  of  his  time  to  the  spending  of 
it.  Not  every  week  is  there  a  call  for  machinery,  but 
supplies  are  in  demand  constantly,  foremost  among 
them  paper  and  ink.  The  bill  for  paper  is  one  of  the 
largest  items  of  expense — there  are  papers  which  use 
over  $500,000  worth  in  a  year — and  this  bill  must  be 
met  promptly,  for  the  companies  which  manufacture 
paper  are  comparatively  few,  and  none  of  them  is,  for 


The  Money- Making  Department     3  1 9 

want  of  an  outlet  for  its  product,  forced  to  deal  with 
customers  who  are  slow  to  pay.  Another  large  item 
of  expense  with  which  the  business  manager  must 
reckon  is  the  bill  for  telegraph  tolls,  which  when  sub- 
mitted is  turned  over  to  the  managing  editor  for  in- 
spection and  indorsement.  Of  course,  it  is  to  the 
advantage  of  the  managing  editor  to  keep  this  bill  as 
low  as  possible,  as  the  amount  it  requires  must  be  de- 
ducted from  the  sum  set  aside  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  editorial  department. 

But  no  single  item  of  expense  in  a  newspaper  es- 
tablishment overshadows  that  which  stands  for  labor. 
The  editors  and  reporters,  as  well  as  the  business  office 
force,  are  generally  well  paid — the  business  manager's 
own  salary  commonly  coming  second  to  only  that  of 
the  highest  paid  editor,  and  not  a  bad  second  at  that — 
and  no  matter  what  they  receive  the  compositors  and 
pressmen,  and  all  the  other  workers  in  the  mechanical 
department,  get  wages  that  must  be  classed  as  high. 
When  editors  and  reporters  are  engaged  there  is  bar- 
gaining sometimes,  but  there  is  none  where  mechanical 
workers  are  concerned.  Having  set  the  price  at  which 
they  hold  their  services,  these  men  stick  to  it  at  all 
times.  They  get  their  price  or  they  do  not  work.  The 
result  is  that  the  compositors,  stereotypers,  and  press- 
men in  many  establishments  fare  as  well  as  do  all 
except  the  highest-paid  reporters,  while  the  foremen 
get  salaries  that  compare  favorably  with  those  received 
by  the  subordinate  editors. 


THE  END 


INDEX 


Abbreviations,  208 

Accidents,     how     learned     of, 

76,  78 

Accuracy,  stress  laid  upon,  210 

"Add."  how  used,  201 

Advertising,  income  from,  307; 
disguised,  309;  rates,  312; 
classified,  313 

Anonymous  journalism,  205; 
editors    unknown,    269 

Anonymous  letters,  how  treat- 
ed, 38 

Arrests,  news  of,  'j'] ;  statis- 
tics, 87;  care  in  reporting, 
212 

Artists,  on  assignments.  127; 
training,  245 ;  making  pic- 
tures. 247 

Assignment  schedule,  prepara- 
tion. 106;  how  employed,  123 

Autoplate,  stereotyping,  296 

Bad  habits,  how  regarded  by 
editors,  151 

Bank,  composing  room,  289 

Bank    failure,  reporting,   173 

Beats,  definition,  29;  prizes  for, 
52 ;  hard  to  procure,  135 ; 
how   sought,    136 

Beginners,  early  assignments. 
150;  opportunites  for  quick 
advancement,  161 ;  overlook- 
ing news,  169 ;  writing  about 
themselves,  204;  salary,  273 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  new 
journalistic   methods,    14 

Bohemians,  in  newspaper  work, 
151 

Bowery  humorists,  created  on 
paper,    217 

Bribes,  to  be  guarded  against, 
176 


Brooklyn  Eagle,  printing  ma- 
chinery, 299 ;  seeking  read- 
ers, 315 
Bulletin,  how  used,  133 
Business  manager,  305 ;  weekly 
expenses,  307;  promoting 
circulation,  311;  salary,  319 

Cable,  widely  used,  220;  writ- 
ing for  the,  228 

Cartoonists,  under  managing 
editor,  128;  trained  artists, 
246 

Catch  line,  use  of,  131 

Circulation,  in  United  States, 
12;  of  leading  papers.  18; 
how  gained,  312;  carefully 
guarded,  314;  city  and 
country,  317 

City  editor,  in  office  organi- 
zation, 27;  watching  the  city, 
63;  schedule,  106;  hours, 
115;  making  news,  118;  as- 
signing reporters,  121 ;  on 
the  look-out,  125 ;  reading 
stories,  131 ;  afraid  of  libel, 
138;  manning  a  big  story, 
141 

Clearness,  necessary  in  a  story, 
196 

Code,  telegraph,  226;  forbid- 
den to  war  correspondents, 
228 

College,  preparation  for  jour- 
nalism.   242 

Combination,  reporters  in,  162 

Composing  machine,  pioneer, 
16;    kinds   in   use,   285 

Condensation,  not  everything, 
197 

Copy  cutter,  286 

Copy    holder,  292 


321 


322 


Index 


Copy  readers,  functions  of,  27; 
number  of,  125;  at  work, 
130;  editing  stories,  192;  in 
line  for  promotion,  275 

Coroners'  office,  news  of,  59 

Correspondents,  222 ;  foreign, 
224;  home.  225;  space  paid, 
232;  instructions  for,  234 

Courts,  supreme,  59;  police, 
89 ;  Federal,  61 ;  Appellate 
division,  62;  reporting  trials, 
202 

Critics,  over  zealous,  213 

Department  editors,  27;  good 
stories  uncovered  by,  141 

Department  reporters,  watch- 
ing for  news,  58;  skilled 
workers  among,   158 

Dialect,  decreasing  use  of,  211 

Don't  list,    194 

Dramatic  critic,  seeking  news, 
62;  tickets  for  theaters,  256 

Editorials,  by  whom  written, 
31 ;  how  regarded,  3s 

Editor-in-chief,  duties  of,  27; 
owner's  representative,  30 ; 
assigning  editorial  topics,  31 

Editorial  writers,  at  work,  31  ; 
methods  of,  32;  office  stand- 
ing, 34 

Education,  for  journalism,  240 

Employment,  seeking,  255 

Exchange  editor,  27 

Experience,  where  it  helps, 
171  ;  where  it  is  lightly 
valued.  269 

Extra  space  reporter,  264 

Fame  in  journalism,  269 

Filling  space,  198 

Financial  news,  how  gathered, 

60;  beyond  beginners,  164 
Fires,    alarms,    73;    shifting  of 

engines,   74;   handling  a  fire 

story,   141 
First  editions,  how  guarded,  47 
"Flash,"  how  used,  133 


Flattery,  sometimes  useful,  182 

Follow  copy,  209 

Foundation    builder,    functions, 

of,    98;    must    read    papers 

carefully,  103 
Franchise,  cost  of  co-operative 

newsgathering       association, 

238 
Freedom  allowed  reporters,  215 
Free   lance,  264 
Fudge,    quick    printing    device, 

301 

Gifts,  reporters  dare  not  ac- 
cept, 177 

Good  taste,  must  not  be 
offended,  205 

Gossip,  63 

Gratuities,  in  journalism,  255 

Greeley,  Horace,  in  editorial 
controversy,  23 

Grumbling  among  newspaper 
men,  266 

Headings,  hard  to  write,  134; 
limitations,  135 ;  examples, 
135;  danger  of  libel  in,  138 

Humor,  how  regarded,  205 

Identifications,  care  in  report- 
ing, necessary,  186 

Illustrations,  seeking  material 
for,  127;  picture  making, 
247;  photo-engravings,  283 

"Insert,"  how  used,  201 

Instructions,  given  to  report- 
ers, 215 ;  for  correspondents, 

234  . 

Interviewing,  how  note-taking 
affects,  182;  gone  to  ex- 
tremes, 202 ;  reporter,  249 

Introduction,  how  constructed, 
192 

Johnstown  flood,  reporting  the, 
160 

Journalism,  in  America,  6;  yel- 
low, 8;  distinctive  American, 
14;    new    impetus    given    to, 


Index 


323 


15;      individuality      in,      23; 
school  of,  253 

Kill,  definition,  43 

Labor,  cost  of,  in  newspaper 
establishment,  319 

Lead,  how  employed,  200 

Libel,  fear  of,  44;  in  Police 
court  news,  95 ;  through 
editing,  138;  watched  for  by 
lawyers,  21 1 ;  sham  defenses, 
212 

London,  news  sent  to  New 
York,  225 

Make-up,    how     directed,    45 ; 

early  morning,  115 
Managing  editor,  duties  of,  36; 

in     command.     41 ;     reading 

proofs,    42 ;    making   up,    45 ; 

scanning    rival    papers,    47 ; 

traps  for,  49;  measuring  his 

men.  52 
Memory,  should  be  cultivated, 

183 
Mental   alertness,   242 
Mergenthaler,  Ottmar,  16 
^lorgue,    office    repository    for 

clippings,    126 

Names,  care  in  reporting,  nec- 
essary, 209 

News,  by  whom  uncovered,  55 ; 
where  watched  for,  57 ;  finan- 
cial, 60 ;  society,  63 ;  from 
the  police.  78 ;  gleaned  from 
newspapers.  98  ;  certain  kinds 
expected,  109 ;  how  value  is 
determined,  144 ;  definition 
of.  168;  negative,  169;  tele- 
graph. 219;  kinds  not 
wanted.  235 

Newsgathering  organizations, 
local,  67;  telegraph,  219;  co- 
operative, 221 ;  origin  of, 
223 ;    how   conducted,   238 

Newspapers,  where  read,  i ; 
changing,  2 ;  definitions  of, 
4;  sensational,  8;  new  move, 


11;  statistics,  12;  circulation, 
18;  editions,  18;  ownership 
of,  23 ;  arrangement  of  arti- 
cles in  pages,  45 ;  holidays, 
97;  busy  days  for,  98;  cost 
of  starting  a  paper,  306;  cir- 
culation. 308 

Newspaper  office  organization, 
22;  workers,  26;  hurry  in  a, 
45;  starting  the  day,  97; 
rules,  194;  unrest  in,  258 

New  York  Herald,  founding 
of  the,  14 

New  York  Sun,  Sunday  sup- 
plements, 41 ;  the  newspaper 
man's  paper,  162 

New  York  World,  how  com- 
plaints are  regarded,  212; 
instructions  to  correspond- 
ents, 234;  press  room  equip- 
ment, 301 

Night  city  editor,  129 

Note  taking,  sometimes  sup- 
presses news,  182 

Odd  stories,  highly  valued,  169 
One-story  reporter,  197 
Operator,    telegraph,    receiving 

news,  226 
Organization,  newspaper  office, 

22;     police     department     in 

New  York,  70 
Originality,  desirability  of,  169 

Paper,  cost  of,  17;  furnished 
for  writing,  206;  for  printing 
presses,  298;  yearly  cost  of, 
318 

Paragraphing,  207 

Photographers,  on  assign- 
ments, 127;  quick  work  of, 
248 

"Pi,"  293 

Plant,  false  story,  163 

Plate  matter,  230 

Police,  as  newsgatherers,  69; 
organization,  70;  in  training, 
72;  blotter,  7S',  bulletins,  78; 
headquarters    reporters,    82 ; 


3^4 


Index 


detectives.  84;  statistic:*,  87; 
giving  aid  to  reporters,  155 

Police  courts,  how  guarded, 
89;  stories  from,  91;  re- 
porters at  work,  92;  statis- 
tics, 95 ;  good  places  to  gain 
experience,   158 

President's  message,  in  type 
before  delivered,  251 

Printing  press,  development  of, 
15 ;  modern,  295 ;  making 
ready,  298;  cost  of,  300; 
capacity,  301 ;  fudge,  301 

Prizes  in  journalism,  266 

Promises,  reporter  should  be 
slow  to  make,  178 

Promotion,  how  regulated,  158; 
copy  readers  in  direct  line 
for,  275 

Power  possessed  by  reporters, 
216 

Proof,  read  by  managing 
editor,  42:  making  correc- 
tions, 195 ;  reading  in  com- 
posing room,  291 

Punctuation,  209 

Qualifications,  for  journalism, 
147;  ability  to  see  news, 
149;  good  health  and  en- 
thusiasm requisite,  150;  for 
an  artist,  245 

Query,  use  of  the,  226 

Questions,  asked  by  readers, 
38;  must  be  direct  to  un- 
cover news,  180 

Quick   printing   device,    301 

Quotations,  208 

Railroads,  effect  upon  news- 
papers,  II 

Reporters,  requirements,  28; 
unsalaried,  55 ;  department, 
58;  volunteer,  64;  general 
workers,  66;  news  bureau, 
67;  at  Police  Headquarters, 
82;  in  Police  courts,  89; 
day  of  rest,  97;  rewriting, 
107;  receiving  assignments, 
121;     writing     stories,     128; 


first-class  men  scarce,  148; 
beginners,  153;  all  kinds  of 
assignments,  159;  the  spe- 
cialist, 163 ;  danger  of  defeat, 
167;  telephoning  stories,  203; 
hours,  214;  special  stories, 
248;     forsaking    journalism, 

259 
Rewriting,  early  morning,  107 ; 

requires  skill,  no;  examples 

of.    III 
Running  story,  202 

Salaries,  highest,  271 ;  in  New 
York,  272 ;  other  large  cities, 
278 ;  small  cities,  278 

Scandal,  how  learned  of,  63 

School  of  Journalism,  253 

Scoop,  definition,  29 

Seeking  employment,  256; 
through  letter  writing,  261 

Shorthand,   not   necessary,   249 

Society  news,  63 

Space  rates,  payment,  274 

Sporting  editor,  seeking  news, 
63;  making  up,  115;  working 
with  city  editor,  141 

Stereotyping,  294 

Stock  phrases,  forbidden,  205 

Story,  definition,  28 ;  rewritten, 
107;  rules  for  writing,  189; 
two  kinds,  189;  human  inter- 
est, 190;  introduction  to  a, 
192;  how  planned,  193;  body 
of,  193;  office  rules,  194; 
principal  aim  of,  195 ;  techni- 
cal words  to  be  avoided, 
199 ;  tense,  199 ;  stock 
phrases,  205 ;  details,  206 ; 
telegraph,  232;  in  printers' 
hands,  286. 

Sunday  editor,  directed  by 
managing  editor,  39;  select- 
ing stories,  40 

Sunday  newspaper,  circulation, 
2;  when  printed,  19;  charac- 
ter of,  41 

Suppressing  news,   177 

Syndicates,  markets  for  stories 
and  pictures,  246 


Index 


32s 


Telegraph,  news  sent  by,  219 ; 
private  wires,  227 ;  news  re- 
ceived in  pressroom,  303 

Telegraph  editor,  wide  field, 
224;  sending  orders,  227; 
reading  copy,  229 

Telephone,  employed  in  collec- 
tion of  news,  183 ;  grow- 
ing use  of,  in  journalism, 
203 

Timely  article,  approach  to 
news,  263 

Tips,  value  of,  181 

Typewriter,  in  newspaper 
offices,  252 


Wait  orders,  explanation,  107; 
when  employed,   133 

War  correspondents,  when 
they  exist,  165;  do  not 
monopolize  wires,  228;  as 
winners  of  fame,  269;  salary, 
272 

War  news,  collected  at  great 
expense,  223 

Webb,  James  Watson,  in  edi- 
torial controversy,  23 

Women,  in  journalism,  279 

Yellow  journalism,  origin  of, 
8;   seeking  sensations,   170 


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Assistant  Professor  of  Journalism  in  the  University  of  Missouri 

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HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

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HELEN   R.    ALBEE'S   THE   GLEAM 

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J.    NOVICOW'S   WAR  AND   ITS   ALLEGED 
BENEFITS 

By  the  Vice-President  of  the  International  Institute  of  Sociology . 
Translated  by  Thomas  Seltzer.  130  pp.  l6mo,  $l.OO  net.* 
The  Contents  include  :  War  as  an  End  in  Itself — One-Sided 
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Survivals,  Routine  Ideas,  and  Sophistries — The  Psychology  of  War — 
War  Considered  as  the  Sole  Form  of  Struggle — The  Theorist  of 
Brute  Force — Antagonism  and  Solidarity. 

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HENRY  WILUAMS'S  THE  UNITED  STATES  NAVY 
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and  its  publication  officially  sanctioned.  The  Contefits  in- 
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THOMAS   LEAMING'S 
A  PHILADELPHIA  LAWYER  IN  THE  LONDON  COURTS 

Illustrated  by  the  Author.  8vo.  $2.00  net;  by  mail,  $2.15. 
(Circular  on  application.) 
A  trained  observer's  graphic  description  of  the  English 
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Mr.  Learning  has  much  to  say  that  is  worth  careful  perusal." 

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